BY DOMINICK DICARLO | STAFF WRITER
When conservatives discuss unfair treatment on college campuses, much of the conversation has to do with professors and students who seem to transform into political activists at a moments notice. Conservative organizations are immensely important for this reason. On almost every college campus in America, the majority of professors are liberal and often don’t seem to care for hearing voices who may disagree with them. For conservatives, college campuses are often regarded as the indoctrination centers of the liberal agenda. They are seen as a place where opposing opinions aren’t just seen in a negative light, but are actively shutdown when possible. High school was where I first saw a lot of the indoctrination and silencing begin; it was disgusting and I tried to speak out against it when possible.
Just like in college, the problems in high schools seem to begin with the faculty. It’s not always intentional, but the hiring by many high schools tend to drift towards liberals because American academia is a left-leaning institution. In a 2016 study, by Econ Journal Watch, it shows: “We investigate the voter registration of faculty at 40 leading U.S. universities in the fields of Economics, History, Journalism/Communications, Law, and Psychology. We looked up 7,243 professors and found 3,623 to be registered Democratic and 314 Republican, for an overall D:R ratio of 11.5:1.” (Langbert et al). There have been many studies and public polling to show that registered Democrats overwhelming hold more ground in academia over registered Republican professors.
Part of the reason I became so involved in politics is actually due to much of the liberal bias that was present in my former high school. When I was in my junior year of high school there was a student-organized walk-out protesting the changes the school was making to graduation gown attire. In order to be more inclusive of transgender students, the school planned on getting rid of men and women wearing different colored gowns. Historically, female students wore gold gowns, and male students wore green gowns. Green and gold were the school colors, after all, it made perfect sense.
I didn’t care about any of the protests taking place. It was what our principal told us afterwards that sent me into a tailspin. During class, he came onto the loudspeaker and spoke to the entire building. In his pre-written speech, he highlighted how there needed to be a dialogue between the faculty and students. He said that the rollout of the gown change was poorly planned and that the school always looked to be a progressive, inclusive community. Progressive is a political term and especially today, it’s not seen favorably by many in the conservative movement. I was in the library doing homework during his speech, once it was over I turned to a clean page in my notebook and began writing down how I felt. I turned my writing into a letter to Newsday, which eventually ended up getting published in the paper a few weeks later. My letter called out a liberal bias in the school; highlighting the way teachers look at politics, the organizations present in the school (as well as what was not present), and the way the school handled the election and inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. The school found out about the letter, spurring a faculty meeting after school and then a meeting between myself and the administration.
The excitement did not end there for me. In my senior year, things got dialed up to eleven. In the wake of the Parkland, Florida shooting, hundreds of students were planning protests and walkouts. At this point, most people had already formed an opinion about me. People either loved me or hated me because of my political views. The students who organized the walkout in particular, would not be joining my fan club anytime soon. These were the type of people who would walk up to me in lunch and yell at me about my political opinions. They would constantly be looking for a reason to shout me down.
Many conservative and moderate students did not agree with the walkout. There wound up being a counter walkout which was labeled a “Walkout for Real Solutions.” The school quickly learned of the plan and acted swiftly. They stated that neither walkout would be supported by the school and any student who tried to walk out would face “severe consequences” for their actions. Instead, the school proposed holding a debate at the end of the school day. The debate would discuss gun control and school safety with ten students on the stage who have varying perspectives on the issue. Of course, the walkouts still happened, and like you may have thought, no one got in any trouble.
The debate happened that same day and was absolutely incredible. The entire auditorium was packed with students and our side felt that we made some points that extinguished the opposition. The crowd was clearly on our side during much of the debate, once it ended a student from the other side shook my hand and whispered to me, “Congratulations, you guys absolutely destroyed us.” I tried getting off stage after this conversation, but it soon became very apparent that students who didn't like what we had to say had other plans. I’m not certain how everyone else got out of the auditorium, but school security had me escorted out as it was near impossible to get around the protesters present. Over the next few days, many students would constantly yell at me in the hallways, some even walking up to friends of mine to tell them that I was a terrible human being. It ended up getting so bad that I walked up to one of the girls who had been saying these things and called her out. Of course, she flatly denied saying anything and put the blame onto others.
These events strengthened my political views and further compounded the idea in my head that our institutions are inherently biased against conservatives. It allowed me to grasp a good feel for what college would be like. Many older Americans think young conservatives are bloviating when discussing the atmosphere that exists on college campuses; I also thought this might be the case. Now that I’m in college, I can say it’s just as crazy as you hear about it being on the news. My story is similar to so many young conservatives across the United States. It’s of dire importance for conservatives on college campuses, and even in high school, to be vocal and never let someone try to shut you down because of what you believe.
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