Last winter, a study commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation found that one in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, USA Today reported.
At the time of the report’s release, David Shaw noted in the Los Angeles Times the disturbing connection between the study’s findings and his observation that “Censorship of high school papers and disciplining of their editors and reporters are at an all-time high.” This climate seems to be continuing–last month a Georgia high school newspaper as well as the school’s journalism class were shut down after the principal criticized the paper for its negative stories and a lack of thorough reporting, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.