Many educators, parents and students were alarmed at the results of a recent survey on the First Amendment.

The study commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation High School Initiative wanted to see how thousands of high school students and faculty viewed the First Amendment in a post-9/11 world.

The findings from the "Future of the First Amendment" survey, released Feb. 1, showed that U.S. students were generally apathetic about their First Amendment rights.

Y-Press, in conjunction with Ball State University's J-Ideas program, sent two editors to cover the release of the study at The Freedom Forum in Washington, D.C.

The written survey was distributed to 544 high schools nationwide. Schools were selected randomly to include small and large schools, as well as public and private ones. Faculty and administrators were asked to complete a slightly different survey.

Among the conclusions of the study, conducted last May and June by the Department of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut, was that nearly three-quarters of the 100,000 students surveyed say they either don't know how they feel about their First Amendment rights or they just take them for granted.

This lack of concern is reflected at the local level as well.

Y-Press talked to 59 middle school and high school students in the Indianapolis area and asked them 16 of the questions used in the national study. Most of the time the responses generally were similar to the national numbers.

For example, more than half of the students in Y-Press' unscientific sample said they take their First Amendment rights for granted -- or don't even know what they are.

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Courtney Sampson, 17.

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Student views on First Amendment rights

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's High School Initiative commissioned a survey of 100,000 high school students last year to see how they viewed the First Amendment. Among the results:

Students who say they either don't know how they feel about their First Amendment rights or they just take them for granted: 73%

People should be able to express unpopular opinions: 83% agree

Newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories: 51% agree

Musicians should be allowed to sing songs with lyrics others may find offensive: 70% agree

First Amendment goes too far in the rights that it guarantees:

35% agree

44% disagree

Are press freedoms:

32% too much

10% too little

37% right amount

Sources: Survey of 100,000 students conducted May-June 2004 by the Department of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut