Writing Sample
The news story below is my own original work.
When Silence Speaks Louder- A Student’s First Lesson in Censorship
The newsroom at the Student Printz office was alive with the kind of energy that only comes from deadline pressure and heated debate.
For Rosainys Almonte, a student writer, those meetings had started to feel less like brainstorming sessions and more like lessons in navigating what could or couldn’t be published. She learned quickly that some topics were too risky, especially after seeing other media outlets face backlash for crossing invisible lines.
Recently, Rosainys had pitched an article that touched on the controversy surrounding conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Although her story only referenced him in passing, it was rejected.
“I thought anything related to Charlie Kirk’s death was off-limits,” she said, still surprised when another student was allowed to publish something connected to the same event. The inconsistency was jarring.
“It doesn’t seem to make the school look good in fact it seems to do the opposite,” she explained, her tone edged with frustration and confusion.
The heart of the issue, Rosainys realized, wasn’t just about editorial policy. It was about which stories get told and who gets to tell them. After scrolling through the comments under a video about Kirk, she noticed a pattern: most of the critical remarks came from Black viewers while the video itself was racking up likes seemingly from white audiences.
That observation made her pause. The difference in attention was even sharper when she compared it to the story of a Black student who was found dead on campus, a tragedy that barely made a ripple in local coverage.
Experiencing censorship firsthand was deeply upsetting for Rosainys, but it also made her more aware of the broader disparities in whose voices are amplified.
“I realized the importance of focusing on Black people’s experiences even if I am not part of that community,” she said. “As a minority myself I believe these stories deserve more attention, especially considering how the media has historically treated them.”
Her determination was unmistakable as she reflected on what she had learned. “If the media isn’t willing to tell these stories, then who will?”