The founding of the U-High Conservatives club sparked massive backlash from liberal students, leading to an attempt to shut the club down or prevent them from speaking. Liberal students are in the majority at Lab. That does not give them open license to shut down other perspectives.

Doing so is unacceptable if students want to hold true to our school’s founding ideals.

A club designed to explore an ideology, particularly a less prominent ideology in our school community, should be encouraged to exist and flourish here.

The founding of the U-High Conservatives club is an understandable decision by those involved. There need to be more spaces where students can learn from and even respectfully disagree with one another.

Within a school comprised mostly of liberal students, having a space to explore uncommon ideas, both those who identify with this ideological group and those who don’t, need to maintain respect when having conversations.

Members of the majority view do not have the right to silence the U-High Conservatives. Conservative students deserve a place where they feel comfortable to share and explore their beliefs without fear of being silenced by their peers. Liberal students regularly do share within and outside the classroom with little restriction.

Our country is politically divided. Hearing another side’s ideas can help fix the divide because it helps students understand one another. Interpersonal respect should be a priority when a student enters a space where their beliefs aren’t dominant. More importantly, a space that is setup to explore an ideology that isn’t often discussed.

Students shouldn’t enter the U-High Conservatives’ space with the intent of shutting down their views. Students should enter club meetings with respect and the intent to learn and to understand their ideas.

When all students are open-minded and listen to the other side, their arguments and understanding grows stronger.

If the club truly wants to explore hot-button issues, and wants to have open conversations about current political problems, then the club has to create a universally safe space to have these hard discussions, and respect has to exist on both sides of the argument. It is also essential to understand that in some cases, conservatives and liberals may find issues on which they can find agreement.

All students are a mix of Republican and Democratic ideas, which allows them to have a mix of different ideologies. Exploring different opinions may help build bridges rather than extend divisions.

This editorial represents the opinion of the Midway’s Editorial Board.