Oct. 30 review extends the scary season

An Oct. 30 news flash from the Student Press Law Center scares me.

And Halloween is past.

A Nebraska principal prior reviewed an student paper’s interview with the system’s superintendent THEN replaced the student story with a version the superintendent edited and re-worded.

Inappropriate answers for a good public image, you know.

Along the way the principal also decided a student editorial about students attending school board meetings to keep up with current topics as inappropriate.

These moves scare me because they go far beyond any sensible arguments any school official could make for prior review. In effect they destroy the need for student media, suggesting instead a total control of what reaches the public. It goes beyond prior review to prior restraint. It suggests modifying information to shape the public’s view is educationally justifiable.

No reasonable pedagogical concern can justify these actions.

Halloween is past, but at least in this system in Nebraska a new season of Trick, no Treat, is not.