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How to live with all five freedoms
By Randy Swikle

Friday was Get On Your Soapbox Day, the last big event of First Amendment Week at Johnsburg ( Ill. ) High School. It was an experiment that reaffirmed the school's recognition as a four-time ?Let Freedom Ring Award: America 's First Amendment High Schools? honoree.

Every student and staff member received a large, adhesive label upon which to write a personal perspective of an issue, event, institution, or other interest. Participants wore their ?Get On Your Soapbox? labels throughout the day. Expression was limited only by the parameters of protected speech set for public schools by the U.S. Supreme Court in Tinker v. Des Moines Board of Education.

It was a risk. Would the activity be taken seriously? Would it cause substantial disruption? Would a significant number abuse the exercise? Would teachers and administrators censor legally protected messages? Would apathy or the risk of peer disapproval sabotage participation?

By almost all accounts, this application of First Amendment rights in school was a profound success. Half the students and staff participated. Most wrote messages about serious topics of the day: the war in Iraq , abortion, gay rights, school policies, cultural controversies, etc. Some messages were more frivolous: ?Punk Is Dead,? ?School Sucks,? ?Will Work for Sex,? ?Our Basketball Team Is Groovy,? etc. In the school of 850 students, organizers of the event received only one report of a teacher's censorship.

The messages stirred discussion. The school community engaged in democracy. Diversity was celebrated. Learning and acceptance occurred.

The experiment was successful largely because the Johnsburg community has a better understanding than most citizens have of the substance and spirit of the First Amendment. That's because Johnsburg High not only teaches the First Amendment, the school practices it. Rights are balanced with responsibilities, and respect for people and diversity encourages civility on occasions of contention.

Johnsburg High has been a First Amendment School since the day it opened in 1978. I know, because I was a participant as a teacher and adviser of the weekly student newspaper and yearbook for the first 25 years.

I witnessed each day how the 45 words of the First Amendment come alive in school:

? The school board endorses policies that support a democratic learning environment. For example, it encourages discovery by recognizing student publications as public forums, welcoming participation from all citizens in the decision-making process, regardless of controversy or popularity of a perspective.

? Administrators prioritize the First Amendment above their own vulnerability. For example, when a popular principal was arrested and charged with operating a motor boat while under the influence, he courageously and selflessly defended the right of the student newspaper to cover the incident. A month later when the judge dismissed the charges, The Johnsburg Weekly News reported that story too.

 ? Teachers infuse First Amendment principles into their curricula. For example, during one day the entire school studied the First Amendment and how it was relevant to every subject taught at Johnsburg High. Each period, teachers presented different parts of a First Amendment curriculum developed by the Illinois First Amendment Center . The teachers customized their presentations to put special focus on their particular field of study and its relationship with First Amendment issues.

? Students translate their civic education into community engagement. For example, when students questioned in a student newspaper article why women have never been allowed membership in the 80-year-old Johnsburg Community Club, it stirred a town debate that resulted in legal maneuvers that brought the gender discrimination to an end. Today, the assistant superintendent of schools, a woman, is vice president of the club.

? The community supports the school mission to nurture responsible citizenship by giving students real responsibilities. For example, student representatives are members of citizen advisory committees, citizen lobbying initiatives, special event planning groups, interviewing teams that interact with head coaching applicants, and other community bodies/activities that provide significant input in the decision-making process. Furthermore, the community generally supports student autonomy within the parameters of law and safety in the arenas of student government, student publications, and other sources of student expression.

The five freedoms of the First Amendment ? religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition -- are not taken for granted at Johnsburg High. By being allowed to exercise those freedoms in the school culture, students and others gain an appreciation of the responsibilities that attend them. It is the best way to learn ethics, because ethics is self-legislated and self-enforced. And by having their rights respected, students are more likely to respect and support the rights of others. That's how people best learn to accept and value diversity. That's how people best protect their own rights: by guarding the rights of others.

It's easy to identify a First Amendment school.

As you walk toward a First Amendment school, you may pass the Fellowship of Christian Athletes club and others in prayer around the flagpole before the first bell. At the student government meeting second period, you may hear a representative criticizing a new school policy.

During lunch hour, you may pick up a copy of the student newspaper and read a news story and editorial about school administrators attending an out-of-state junket during a time of budget crunches. As you sit at your table, a group of your friends may be complaining about a lack of space in the student parking lot. They may decide to circulate a petition calling for an enlargement of the facility.

You've just witnessed the five freedoms of the First Amendment in action.

Contrast the dynamics of a First Amendment school with one that isn't. One that reduces engagement, diminishes spirit, denies diversity, inhibits potential, destroys curiosity, discourages questioning, practices hypocrisy, feeds cynicism, prohibits students from holding school officials accountable, and in many additional ways impairs the enthusiasm of learners.

I was proud to teach in a First Amendment School , where students learned responsibility because they were given responsibility, where their First Amendment rights were honored even when expression caused discomfort.

The message I wrote on my ?Soapbox? label is a quote from Charles C. Haynes, senior scholar of the First Amendment Center of The Freedom Forum:

?Nobody becomes a free and responsible citizen overnight or through osmosis. Democratic freedom takes practice.?

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