Illinois high school to remove veteran newspaper adviser over drug articles

A veteran teacher who refused to resign her post as newspaper adviser for Naperville Central High School said administrators told her March 17 that this would be her last year as adviser and journalism teacher. The removal comes amid Principal Jim Caudill’s decision to review the Central Times editorial policy after he said a February newspaper spread on marijuana use “seemed to glorify drug use” and used unnecessary profanity. Linda Kane, who has been the Central Times adviser for 19 years, said administrators disapproved of comments she made in a March 7 article in a local commercial newspaper in which she defended the staff’s use of profanity and decision to run the articles. She told the local paper that school administrators “don’t know squat” about First Amendment law.

SPLC View: The Husain decision is a mixed bag for the student media.