Illinois high school officials censor student newspaper article

Student journalists from Naperville Central High School attempted to publish an article with firsthand accounts of a student with special needs causing repeated classroom disruptions. School officials claimed such reporting violated the student’s privacy and substantially censored the article before it was published in October 2019. The student journalists contended that the student’s behavior — which had escalated into causing physical harm to others — necessitated investigation and coverage.

Key Players

Vivian Zhao and Amisha Sethi serve, respectively, as editor-in-chief and profiles editor for Naperville Central High School’s student newspaper, The Central Times. 

Keith Carlson is the faculty adviser for The Central Times, a role he has held since 2008. 

William Wiesbrook is the principal of Naperville Central High School, a public school in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Further Details

According to the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), Carlson and the student journalists began discussing how best to cover the situation in September 2019, when the classroom disruptions began. While withholding the name of the student with special needs, Zhao and Sethi, who wrote the piece, intended to feature eyewitness accounts. But the story’s main goal was to highlight disruptions in the learning environment and to investigate how the school district plans to handle such incidents going forward.

Carlson told the SPLC that, given the sensitive nature of the case, plans to publish the story had initially been placed on hold. But, by October, the severity of the student’s outbursts had only escalated. Zhao said she had eyewitness accounts of the student “causing constant classroom disruptions, including punching a teacher in the head, resulting in a concussion,” according to the SPLC.

At this point, Carlson said, “The kids sat back down and said, ‘Okay, how do we not write about this at this point?’ Property damage, disruption to the learning environment, now we’ve got people being hit. What kind of newspaper are we at this point if we don’t figure out a way to cover this story?”

However, before the piece could be published, Wiesbrook censored about a quarter of it, particularly the firsthand accounts, which he argued violated the privacy of the student at the heart of the issue.

Believing their Free Speech rights had been violated, students from The Central Times contacted the SPLC to seek legal advice. They were informed that, under Illinois’ 2016 New Voices Act, student journalists are protected from prior restraint, and that school officials may only intervene when the content falls within certain categories clearly outlined by the law. One of these categories is an unwarranted invasion of privacy, which Wiesbrook cited as justification for censoring the eyewitness accounts. 

However, the SPLC informed the students that because the eyewitness accounts described behavior that could constitute a crime, the student’s actions were not protected under the privacy category. 

Carlson told the SPLC that his job as faculty adviser to The Central Times was threatened by Wiesbrook and the Naperville school district during this censorship battle. School officials also threatened to take disciplinary action against the students on the editorial board if they did not cooperate and publish a censored version of the article. 

Outcome

Student newspaper publishes censored article, editorial criticizing district

On Oct. 30, 2019, The Central Times published a censored version of the piece, titled “Much to consider when determining best placement for students with special needs.” The article contained no mention of specific students nor any eyewitness accounts of disruptive behavior. In print, the piece was published with strikethroughs covering text that Wiesbrook and the district had censored. 

Also on Oct. 30, The Central Times editorial board published “To the district: Communication (not censorship) is key,” an editorial that outlined the conflict between the two parties. Neither Wiesbrook nor the district made any public comment regarding the piece.