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Christina Xia, editor-in-chief of The Viewer, said the push for prior review started after the paper reported a story naming the two students who were disciplined after posting a "joke" picture of their teacher on Facebook.

The reporter interviewed Principal Julie Wikelius for the story; however, she did not see the article until it was published and ready to be distributed. Martha Rush, adviser to The Viewer said Wikelius contacted Rush five days after the reporter interviewed Wikelius and requested to pull the story, but the paper had been sent for publication.

After the article, Wikelius confiscated the papers due to concerns about releasing students' private disciplinary information without parental consent. Xia said administrators pushed for prior review following the publication of the issue.

Xia said although the reporter had permission from students to publish their names, administrators told her it was a violation of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and state data privacy laws. In order to distribute the issue by the end of the day, the staff obtained parental consent waivers from the parents of named students.

Xia said she wants the issue to be resolved internally and for prior review to be lifted but that she said after a few meetings with administrators no resolution was reached. The student editors obtained volunteer legal assistance through the Student Press Law Center from Minnesota attorney Steve Aggregaard at Bassford Remele, P.A.

"It really makes no legal or logical sense to equate a newspaper to an educational record, doing that would be a chilling effect on college and high school newspapers nationwide at public schools and that certainly is not what Congress intended by enacting FERPA," Aggregaard said.

Paul Ratwick, an attorney representing Mounds View High School district said this policy has always been in place because the adviser acts on behalf of the district as publisher or editor under Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier.

"In the past, the role of the administration has been a bit more distant, that they had left perhaps a greater deal of responsibility to the adviser than they are now contemplating. But in terms of the fact of the control of the district, it's been there all along. It's a question of how they exercise it," Ratwick said.

SPLC attorney advocate Adam Goldstein said, "A publisher is someone who invests their own money into a publication. Hazelwood makes clear that schools aren't publishers or editors, however inconvenient that is for schools."

Rush said that in her 11 years as adviser she never submitted an article or issue to the principal before publication.

"From my perspective, it's a new policy. [Administrators] may be saying [they] maintain the right to, but they haven't always done it," Rush said.

Xia said although the staff is not publishing the newspaper, they continue to write stories and layout pages for their class.

"I do not believe that prior review is the solution. I think that prior review will limit us from learning responsible journalism... If the school imposes prior review, I am very concerned that this will lead to the administration censoring what we write. I know that the administration said their goal is fact checking, but I feel this will become their excuse to control the content of our student newspaper," Xia said.

Prior review will also be enforced for Ironsdale High School in the Mounds View school district.

Diana Lowry, adviser for the Ironsdale Eye, said she does not have any concerns about prior review at Ironsdale and sees it as another layer of guidance.

"It protects the student [from saying] something that could come back to make their lives a little more difficult, if they do get something wrong. They're still kids. They tend to react very strongly to some things," Lowry said.

Rush said she is open to discussions with administrators about issues, but her main concern is prior review turning into restraint and self-censorship for her students.

"What kind of safeguards will there be to ensure that this doesn't become [censorship]? That's the big concern, and feeling that it could affect what kids to write about," Rush said.

Goldstein said the censorship has already been made a reality.

"They're imposing a rule to retaliate against what students published -- that's censorship," Goldstein said.