By Madison Buffardi
Op-Ed Editor

On Thursday Oct 16, Editor in Chief of the Playwickian Gillain McGoldrick went to Washington DC to attend the Student Press Law Center’s fortieth anniversary banquet at the National Press Club.
The key note speaker was three time Pulitzer Prize winner, Barton Gellman. Gellman is an award winning journalist known for his coverage of the September 11 attacks, Dick Cheney’s vice presidency, as well as global surveillance disclosure.

At the banquet McGoldrick was interviewed on stage alongside Tanvi Kumar, by co-host of NPR “All Things Considered,” Audie Cornish. Kumar and McGoldrick both had experiences of censorship in their respective high schools and spoke of them on stage.

McGoldrick spoke of her experience in being compelled to print the name of her school mascot and working under the constricting new publication policy. Kumar spoke of her publishing of an article on rape culture and the subsequent censor ship her school then enacted.

The Student Press Law Center invited McGoldrick to honor her and the rest of the Playwickian staff for their efforts over the past year to maintain First Amendment rights as journalists. The SPLC has been advocating for student and educator’s press rights for 40 years. The proceeds of the banquet went to support the advocacy work of the SPLC.