Religion. Speech. Press. Assembly. Petition. The First Amendment of the Constitution establishes these five fundamental freedoms which have become essential liberties in the United States of America. So in honor of Scholastic Journalism Week, we are participating in the 1 For All First Amendment Challenge to show you — the Monta Vista community — the importance and relevance of the crucial amendment at MVHS. Each day of this week, we will be publishing a short video highlighting one of the freedoms so by Friday night, we will have covered the entirety of the First Amendment.

Today we continue the challenge with the fifth freedom of the amendment: petition.

Perhaps one of the least understood freedoms of the first amendment, the freedom to petition has fundamentally changed with the development of online technologies. However, our right to gather people with similar views and use the power of a community to change some aspect of society helps us create change.

So, what exactly is the ¨Freedom to Petition?”

According to the First Amendment, a citizen’s freedom to petition allows them to ask the government to fix a particular problem they have, without fear of being punished for speaking out against the powers that be.

Alright, but how important is it really?

It’s more important than you might think! The right to petition lets the public talk about issues they have with how their country is being run, and try to take steps to fix the problem. In fact, King George’s failure to respect the colonist’s right to petition was actually listed as one of their reasons to break away from the Empire, and one of the first defenses of the right to petition was when John Quincy Adams repealed a House of Representatives measure that tabled all anti-slavery petitions. Check out the timeline below to see the five most important times citizens exercised their right to petition in the last century.

How do I go and exercise my freedom to petition?

You’ve probably already done so — ever signed a petition online? Recently, online petitions have become extremely popular, and websites like Change.org, as well as the U.S. government’s “We the People” have petitions that have been signed by hundreds of thousands of citizens all across the country. Petition topics have ranged from a request for the government to deport Justin Bieber, to asking for the pardon of Edward Snowden. While pleas for infamous pop stars to be kicked out of the country are not always heeded, successful petitions have been able to affect changes both large and small in the everyday lives of citizens.

Watch the video below to see how MVHS students use their freedom to petition, and some of their reasons for doing so.

Additional reporting by Sanjana Murthy