A student rarely gets the opportunity to amplify their voice and when they do, it can create shockwaves for those open to learning new perspectives or understanding how current leaders are affecting them at a personal level.
Every year, C-SPAN organizes Student Cam, a national documentary competition that allows students in grades 6-12 to think about current events and issues that affect them. This year they asked students to write a message to the president on what issues are most important to them and the actions President Donald Trump should take. Many students delve into the topics that affect their communities such as bullying, the fentanyl crisis, implementation of AI and gun violence.
Meital Zayats, a freshman at Mountain View High School, won second place for her documentary “Voices in Conflict: The Debate Over Free Speech in the Digital Age” and wanted to use this documentary to explain how common hate speech on various social media platforms and online chat rooms is. Zayats said living in Silicon Valley, technology and its involvement in freedom of speech is relevant to her and she was interested in immersing herself in the debate of whether hate speech should be censored, moderated or open for all internet users.
“I’m in a bit of a conflict,” Zayats said. “I think, initially, I did think hate speech should be monitored, but, when I thoroughly interviewed people on all sides and through my research, I am still feeling pretty undecided on the issue because there is no right answer.”
Zayats participated in Student Cam the year prior and found it helped her learn the process of how reporting is done. It also pushed her to learn editing skills with video, reaching out to interviewees and to create narratives with loose footage. She hopes her video can show that hate speech is a discretionary topic and that there are many sides people will take on the issue.
“I believe people, no matter which side of a conflict they’re on, should try to hear out the other side and listen to what they have to say,” Zayats said. “Most people are well-intentioned, even if they don’t agree with you on how to address an issue. I’ve seen a lot of people, straight up, not even want to discuss a problem with a person they disagree with, even though something interesting I found through my documentary was that very few people on the same side fully agreed with one another. It doesn’t mean you need to change your mind, but it’s always good to at least be knowledgeable on what others think.”
Lara and Ian Leon, a Mountain View High School sophomore and a Georgina P. Blach Intermediate School eighth grader, respectively, also challenged the narrative on issues that affect their local community. The Leon siblings looked to see how the LGBTQIA+ community is affected under the current president’s administration in their documentary “Through America’s Eye: LGBTQ+ Students.” The Leons said they found out about the contest a week before it was due and luckily were able to speak with six people who work in various LGBTQ+ support networks. Despite their fast turnaround, they were placed as an honorable mention in the contest.
“I think that’s something that people overlook from this community is that we’re very lucky that we have a voice and that we’re able to publish our own thoughts into the media,” Lara said. “What I want people to take away from our documentary, is that it is always important to, because if you don’t, if you don’t stand up like, no one else will send up.”
The siblings said the biggest shift that they have seen since the president’s inauguration is the dismantling of the Department of Education. They said so many students across the nation will lose a lot of the care they get in public schools such as gender-affirming care. They said schools are a second home for LGBTQ+ children and many of them receive support that they don’t receive in their own homes.
“It could be stigmatizing being part of the LGBTQ+ community,” Lara said. “It’s still a very prevalent topic, and it’s still something that I think is overlooked. With increasing media, I think there are all these narratives saying that it’s like not an important topic, but it is. People’s lives and well-being are on the line.”
By having one adult support a student in the LGBTQ+ community, they said their suicide rate will decrease by 700%. They said it is a scary time to see the hateful messages from people in power and they hope their documentary will challenge the stigmas being pushed from conservative standpoints.
“Even at my school they have these mean sayings around people like ‘Oh, you’re so gay, don’t be gay,’ Lara said. “These different sayings can be harmful, and it might be a joke, but there’s a larger amount of humor and negative connotation of being part of the LGBTQ+ community.”
To learn more about the contest, visit studentcam.org/studentcam-2025-prize-winners/.
