Based on this article, I felt like the Neshaminy newspaper escalated the situation too far instead of agreeing to take out one single word. In the NFL, the debate came up about the NFL football team, the Washington Redskins, changing their trademark name that would be more appropriate towards the Native Americans. Many Native Americans view "Redskin" as an offensive word, but the name has been in existence for over 30 years. In the Neshaminy case, like the NFL team, is facing a possible court charge after declining to leave out the word "redskin" from the local newspaper. It's a simple fix in my opinion, but I still feel like the Neshaminy High School did not justify their actions by putting the word in the newspaper. In a way by putting it in the newspaper, its violating basic humans rights towards Native Americans, and could be considered equal to coercing someone. By adding in the word, you are basically saying something very egregious to the Native American population, and the Native Americans would have no way to protect their reputation when the word is thrown out for the world to see.
According to officials close to the Neshaminy case declared, "The students will proceed in accordance with their published policy and, if disciplined for doing so, will take action to defend their rights" (Levine Sullivan Koch &Shultz, 1). According to our constitution, the freedom of speech is granted in writing as well. The rights of the journalists writing the article shouldn't be be punished for exercising their right to free speech for one word. By pursuing what they believe, the journalists should not be sued but should erase the word out of the original context.
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