There are no gay students at Bellevue West High School. They do not exist — it’s true. That is, at least, the view the student newspaper was asked to take during the time I was editor of that publication. The administration stopped the presses in order to pull a spread on young students’ lifestyles — the religious, dietary and sexual views oft not spoken of (save in the context of “alternative lifestyle” packages, such as our own).

There was no need to write about gay students, the staff was told, because gay students simply did not go to our school. Why make waves?

This twisting of the lens is not uncommon, particularly for high school publications. Should the higher-ups not agree with the view the student press is putting forth, it can offer the demand to change everything until it fits their fancy, or sacrifice the product all together.

Strive as we may to strip the media of its flaws, in every moment of every day, journalists are given the opportunity to do a big thing badly. And sometimes we do very big things very, very badly — imperfection being one of many things we’ve yet to shake from humanity.

In the case of the student media at public universities, it is sometimes the decisions of the administration — not the student journalists — that cause things to go awry. (Let us save a discussion of the limited right of journalists at private institutions for another time.) Sometimes the students strike back, as is the case in Hosty v. Carter, the current legal battle between student editors and the dean of Governors State University in Illinois. The case is one from which a frightening precedent may be set.

In this case, rather than gay students, it was open criticism of the administration that was silenced. Dean Patricia Carter told the company that printed The Innovator, the campus newspaper, to hold issues until GSU officials gave their approval of the editorial content. Now, Carter is being sued by student journalists Margaret Hosty, Jeni Porche and Steven Barba.

This is thin ice, and one that makes me appreciate the cooperation the Daily has been given by President Gregory Geoffroy and ISU administrators. Although Iowa would not be affected by the federal appeals court in Chicago, if the court rules against the students, the days of having the luxury that is free press are numbered — at least for students.

Illinois Attorney General James Ryan wants the appeals court to limit college students’ expression by extending the choice made in the Supreme Court’s 1998 decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, which harshly limited First Amendment protections for high school students.

The media will never be flawless, though often the standards are set at a level beyond what can realistically be achieved. But “student journalist” doesn’t indicate a lack of ethics, responsibility and knowledge of media law. The title is only indicative of an ongoing process of learning — and the lessons come packaged as very real consequences, as education provides a flimsy shield against matters of the law.

In their time as journalists, none are guaranteed a career without incident. A single typo can convict the innocent or kill the living, at least in terms of what’s in ink. Though the clich‚ should be taken with a brick of salt, as the editor of this newspaper, I cannot control what the campus is thinking, but I can control what the campus is thinking about. That responsibility should never be taken lightly, but student media also need not be smacked in the nose before they even go to press.

Each deadline presents its own challenges, and not every decision presents itself with obvious ties to danger. What looks perfect in the face of a deadline can ruin your entire product when it hits the stands the next morning.

Should Hosty v. Carter go the way of the Governors State administration, there is every possibility that any news that reaches university students will come only following a thorough whitewash from those whose duty it is to preserve the image of their institution, not promote freedom of the press. There is no overlap here, no need for institutions to regulate what the student media is permitted to do or say.

To say college journalists have no claim to the First Amendment is as obnoxious as claiming there are no gay high school students. That article was eventually published, during my last issue as editor in chief there.

But let the threat of censorship loom as a reminder of what may come. There is no sound more pathetic than forced silence.

Cavan Reagan is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Bellevue, Neb. He is the editor in chief of the Daily.