Stevenson High School officials halt publication of student newspaper, the Statesman
Administrators at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire spiked Friday’s edition of the school’s award-winning newspaper because of concerns about stories on drinking and smoking by honor students, teen pregnancy, and shoplifting, the editor said.
Advocates of press freedom bashed the decision to halt publication.
“It is irresponsible to withhold this information so they can protect their fantasy image of Stevenson as a place where no one has ever gotten pregnant or shoplifted,” said Frank LoMante, executive director of the Virginia-based Student Press Law Center.
In the most recent incident, administrators on the paper’s review board warned the editor, a senior, not to submit a front-page story by the senior managing editor about students in the National Honor Society and freshmen mentors program.
In it, two students, quoted anonymously, admitted to drinking and smoking, which are prohibited under the society’s no-use contract.