Spotlight on StL STEM: e-speech Censorship

In modern society, we have surveillance cameras everywhere we go, advertisers track our movement on the Internet, and recently it was discovered that even our actions on our cell phones can be monitored by the government.  The students in Mrs. Baldwin’s English class were guided by the question, “What if you had no right to send text messages, use your cell phones, access your Facebook or Twitter Accounts without having your e-speech censored?” Students read an article discussing the issue of censorship from the American Civil Liberties Union, and then each group held a mock trial debating this issue.  Each student in the group was assigned to be either a judge, a lawyer for e-speech censorship, or a lawyer against e-speech censorship.  Students researched their argument and then participated in a mock trial.

Click here to view a clip from one of the team’s debates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0sFQbxDBbI