Silent or Silenced?
After years of feeling unheard in his political beliefs throughout U-High spaces, Oliver Wilson decided to take action this spring. He created a website, called Lab Liberty, with a goal of exposing students to political perspectives that are less common at U-High.
“I think U-High — from an administrative perspective — has a great free speech policy,” Oliver, a junior, said. “It’s just that people are too scared to say anything. And people sometimes are actually told not to by other students. And people learn not to say anything by seeing the experiences that others before them had been met with. So that’s what I was trying to combat with the website, and promote free ideas.”
Some students said they found U-High to be a difficult place to express views that may not align with their classmates’ beliefs. While students said they did not feel that the school’s rules explicitly barred them from expressing their views on political or social issues, they still sometimes limited themselves because of widely understood expectations, even in classroom discussions about literature or history.
“I feel like a lot of times people — including myself — kind of just go with what’s generally being said,” Ava Cohen, a junior, said.
Leila Battiste, a senior, said that she has also perceived a problem of students feeling intimidated to share a perspective that diverges from popular opinion. She’s noticed that a lot of that pressure comes from other students.
“It’s very easy for me to speak out and be loud about my beliefs,” Leila said. “But in reference to the school as a whole, it’s definitely suppressing when there is a majority voice and you are not part of that voice.”
Leila said she thinks that the fear of speaking out is a significant issue throughout the student body.
“It can definitely be very intimidating for a lot of people to speak up and actually say what they feel because they don’t want to be looked at as maybe pro-activism or pro-woke or just extra. A lot of people are intimidated by standing up for what’s right,” Leila said. “And I think that needs to change.”
The University of Chicago has described its own policy as one that promises to permit free speech and free expression on campus. In 2014, a faculty committee wrote a set of “Chicago Principles,” which lay out the idea that the university is committed to “free, robust and uninhibited debate.” The philosophy, which has since been adopted by numerous colleges, is aimed at permitting all views to be heard without being swayed by whatever the political winds of a given moment may be.
Some students said they were troubled enough by a sense that all perspectives are not welcomed at U-High that they looked for ways to change that.
Oliver said that in some settings at U-High, students are quick to criticize unpopular viewpoints. This, he said, can discourage people from speaking up.
“I used to visit the Political Discourse Club pretty frequently,” Oliver said. “And there, I was kind of met with this same sentiment. There was some constructive argument happening, but for the most part, it was just yelling, and people trying to shut other people down they didn’t agree with.”
A pressure to avoid offering views that might not match a generally accepted perspective does not come exclusively from other students at school, some students said. They said adults can play a role, even unintentionally, leaving some students to avoid speaking freely.
“From the teachers and adults — they also project a lot of their beliefs and how they teach,” Leila said. “There’s nothing wrong with that. But it definitely can intimidate students. For example, in history, if we’re talking about a certain presidential candidate, if another student is not for that candidate, they can have a hard time speaking up about it, or feeling comfortable in that class.”
Leila, who has been involved in efforts to support Palestinian people with a bake sale and by participating in a demonstration at the University of Chicago, said she understands how volatile and complex the debate over the war in Gaza has become — and why that issue has raised so many intensive questions about free expression in this moment
“There’s a lot of stigma around pro-Palestine. There’s a lot of rhetoric that, you know, being pro-Palestine is antisemitic,” Leila said. “A lot of students are afraid to speak out about their beliefs within that field.”
Leila said she thinks addressing the situation more head-on at Lab would make people more comfortable to share their perspectives.
“I think definitely, instead of shying away from it and generalizing it, we need to actively take a deeper look into these problems to ensure that everyone at the Lab feels safe and supported,” Leila said.
To Oliver, the idea of truly welcoming all speech at U-High would come only with a significant change in mindset.
“I like to encourage students to be more open-minded and not just look to call a certain viewpoint hateful, but rather, understand it for what it is — its intentions – because most people aren’t really trying to be racist or hateful,” Oliver said. “And I think once we start understanding each other more, we can have a more productive dialogue.”
Social media has long been a platform on which students view their friends’ political opinions and feel comfortable sharing their own. However, after the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, 2023, sophomore Bayaan El-Bawab noticed a surge in posts that made her even more afraid of speaking out on the subject than she already was, especially due to her Palestinian identity.
“Right after Oct. 7, I was still so scared to say anything,” Bayaan said. “I did, but I was scared to bring it up in person, especially because there was a lot of stuff I saw on fellow students’ social media pages that made me feel unsafe with some of the views I share, calling some humans animals and really degrading stuff like that.”
In the almost seven months since the Israel-Hamas war began, many students are still very hesitant to speak on the subject, fearing any sort of backlash, while others feel the time has allowed them to have more informed discussions.
Despite her initial concerns, Bayaan said she has felt a huge shift in how the Lab community approaches this topic, as she is now able to have open discussions with her peers about the Israel-Hamas war as often as every other day.
“I was always nervous to even say I was Palestinian at school before this happened,” Bayaan said. “Now, this has been the kind of event where a lot of people have felt the need to speak up for certain populations, specifically the civilians. I feel like having seen people post even just an Instagram story saying ‘I stand in solidarity, we need humanitarian aid,’ has made me feel so much more comfortable talking about this. It’s just something I feel has motivated people to speak out and not feel so scared. It’s created a more inclusive environment to the point where I feel safe talking about it anywhere at Lab now.”
While senior Alex Fogel also felt uncomfortable speaking about the Israel-Hamas war at first, after making an effort to learn more to be able to have informed conversations on the subject, they began speaking about it more. However, they said there were times in which a teacher told them to specifically not speak about the Israel-Hamas war. Alex said it was because the teacher was afraid of offending the Jewish members of the class.
Bayaan, a member of the Muslim Students’ Association, also said she’s seen the continuous conflation of religious and political stances regarding the Israel-Hamas war, which disappointed her and she feels has made students less comfortable speaking on the issue.
“I really don’t like how teachers, faculty, administrators have actually gone to MSA and JSA and asked them to speak on this issue as if their religious identity would permit them to do that,” Bayaan said. “Especially because not all Jewish people are Israeli citizens or Zionists, and not all Muslim people are Arab or Palestinian, specifically when you have such a large portion of Christian Palestinians. It turns it into this two-dimensional Muslim vs. Jewish conflict that it’s not. When the school does stuff like that it especially makes students nervous because they feel like they’re getting into the territory of not just politics but religion.”
While Bayaan and Alex have grown more comfortable speaking about the Israel-Hamas war over time, senior Connor Booth has felt the opposite due to the sensitive nature of the subject.
“Earlier on I tried having conversations with some people at Lab, and instead of being met with a chance for dialogue I was met pretty quickly with just an emotional response that made it clear to me that this is an issue that’s probably best to stay away from,” Connor said. “Even though I’m able to engage in a policy conversation with some people, for others they have such a stark emotional response to these kinds of issues that it becomes really tough to talk about.”
Within classrooms students have had few opportunities to talk about the Israel-Hamas war, with many — including ninth grader Thomas Housinger — wishing there were more. Thomas said that while some of his teachers mentioned it, there was a missed opportunity for open discussion.
“I think that would have been pretty productive, but it also might have been risky seeing as there weren’t any set-up rules for that conversation,” Thomas said. “It would have been difficult to do, but I would have liked to see that happen.”
While Thomas understands the hesitation around speaking out about the Israel-Hamas war, he said he thinks it is an especially important conversation to have, despite the difficulties.
“I know that coming with Israel and Hamas as a topic, there’s a lot of room for people to be uncomfortable and be offended,” Thomas said, “but I think it’s very important to talk about these things and to hear people’s opinions.”
The results of a unscientific Midway survey conducted on April 19, help students address their opinions on the freedom of expression at Lab.
The survey offered students a list of current polarizing political subjects and asked them to rank how comfortable they are speaking on each of the issues on a scale of one to five — one being extremely uncomfortable and five being extremely comfortable
Students on average answered that they felt comfortable expressing their opinion on the six topics that they were polled on. But, on every question at least 9% of the student body answered that they felt extremely uncomfortable expressing their opinions.
These questions were targeted toward issues that have been on a global stage and have been a source of debate for many Lab students, focusing on political subjects ranging from the Israel-Hamas war to gun control.
What actions has U-High taken already to support students’ freedom of expression, and in what ways can they improve?
“I think if the school incorporated freedom of expression in classes, that would help. Having more spaces for students to be creative and express themselves is really important, but we don’t have many opportunities for that because of all our classes.”
— Katharine Christensen, junior
“I think it’s not really something that the administration imposes — I think it’s more of a social thing within the school, where if you say something that isn’t really something that a lot of people support, or you go against someone’s beliefs, there’s a social pressure where you can’t say that. So I think the school could take people with different ideas in mind, and let them express those through the school’s media outlets.”
— Julian Rossi, sophomore
“I think the majority of the issues that people find in terms of expressing their own opinions come from a lot of people with similar opinions at Lab, so it can feel a little isolating when you are not in that majority. If you’re in an isolating situation, whether that be your political opinions, race, religion or whatever else, you learn to constantly be on defense, and this can turn ugly and lead people down extremist paths.”
— Areen Khan, senior
“I think it would be cool if the Midway had an open space for one op-ed that anybody — not just people taking journalism classes or clubs — could write for to try it out. That way, students who didn’t necessarily want to invest as much as journalism students could still put out an opinion.”
— Macabee Callard, sophomore
“I would say the school supports students’ freedom of expression through the countless clubs we have. Many students join clubs out of a passion for a certain thing, but a huge part of the clubs Lab has is the fact that students can find a sense of familiarity within them. It allows Lab students to not feel alone in expressing their views, feelings or beliefs on a certain topic because they know everyone else there can understand where they are coming from.”
— Gabi Novak, ninth grader
