Student journalists at the Redwood Bark at Redwood High School in Marin County aren’t alone in facing recent attempts to control student journalism.

Despite protections in a 1977 landmark state law, the Student Free Expression Act, which prohibits administrators from interfering with the gathering and publication of news, student reporters and their journalism advisers have encountered censorship attempts in recent years, including efforts to punish advisers for students’ stories and to remove content. In one case, a principal told them that their job was to paint the high school in a good light.

Examples include: 

San Francisco Unified School District

A Superior Court judge in January ordered the district to reinstate the journalism adviser at Lowell High School, Eric Gustafson, to his job after he was removed last year. San Francisco Unified School District officials argued they transferred Gustafson because they wanted someone in his post with more experience and more education. 

Gustafson claimed it was because of his students’ aggressive reporting and stories on topics such as student drug use and teachers’ use of AI in grading, and because he refused to let school officials see stories before they were published, court records show.

Judge Christine Van Aken called the district’s claims “not credible.” The court concluded that the “motivation for the district’s reassignment decision was to impact the editorial content of The Lowell in a way that they could not accomplish directly,” she wrote in her decision.

Mountain View Los Altos High School District 

In Silicon Valley, a trial is scheduled for November over a lawsuit brought in 2024 by a journalism adviser and former students against the Mountain View Los Altos High School District. It alleges a principal, Kip Glazer, “improperly pressured and intimidated” student reporters working on a story about student-on-student sexual harassment.

Glazer sought to “avoid embarrassment rather than uphold the constitutional and statutory right of her students and faculty,” the suit charges. Glazer allegedly told student journalists on Mountain View High School’s Oracle newspaper staff that their purpose was to be “uplifting” for the school and to portray it “in a positive light,” records show. 

“The power dynamic was pretty clear,” one of the students’ lawyers, Jordyn Ostroff, told EdSource. “I think anyone would understand that a student, generally speaking, would probably feel obligated to do what a principal is demanding they do.”

The suit also alleges that Glazer illegally removed Oracle’s adviser, Carla Gomez, from her post, replacing her with the school’s drama teacher. Gomez is suing to get her job back.

The former students are seeking an order from a judge that would “prevent future censorship of the paper. They also want to ensure journalism is still taught at Mountain View High, where the district has cut an introduction to journalism class.

The lawyer defending the district, Eric Bengston, declined to comment. 

Sacramento City Unified School District

In 2024, the district placed Samantha Archuleta, the journalism adviser to The Prospector newspaper at C.K. McClatchy High School, named for the long-time editor of the Sacramento Bee, on administrative leave after a reporter quoted a fellow student saying that Adolph “Hitler had some good ideas.”  

The comment was reportedly made in a government class and printed in a column entitled “What did you say?” about remarks overheard at school.

Student journalists at The Prospector — where the writer Joan Didion was once on staff — wrote on Instagram that the quote had not reflected their beliefs but “was included to spark a conversation on how students here choose to use their words.” 

In a June 2024 guest piece in The Sacramento Bee, Archuleta wrote that “students have rights that give them the first and last say in what is written, how it is edited and what gets published without prior restraint, censorship or punishment from me or any other adult so long as it is protected speech.” 

Numerous free press and student press groups pushed for her reinstatement. However, she left her position at McClatchy High.

Los Angeles Unified School District

In 2021, Los Angeles Unified brought a disciplinary case against Adriana Chavira, the journalism adviser at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School, after she refused to censor students reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic’s effect on the school. The school is named for the late Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was murdered by jihadist militants in Pakistan in 2002.  

The school newspaper, The Pearl Post, had reported that the school librarian had refused to receive the Covid vaccine, and the library had been closed as a result. The librarian, citing privacy, demanded that The Post remove her name from a story published online. Student journalists refused. The school principal gave Chavira a day to remove the name. It stayed up. The district then suspended her.

In an essay published on the website of her union, the United Teachers Los Angeles, Chavira wrote: “Removing the information would mean that I was censoring my journalism students. And that is something I would never do since that goes against everything I’ve taught my student journalists.” 

The disciplinary case was withdrawn in 2022. Chavira continues to advise the Pearl Post, and is on the board of the Student Press Law Center.

California voters will decide in November whether to require photo identification to cast a ballot, making California the latest battleground in a long-running effort by conservatives to push voter ID laws that have been bolstered in recent years by Donald Trump’s repeated and unfounded accusations of widespread voter fraud.

Nearly 1 million Californians signed on to support the ballot measure championed by Carl DeMaio, a Republican state representative from San Diego.

“Voters will be able to restore election integrity in our state, citizenship verification, auditing voter rolls – and yes, requiring ID to vote,” DeMaio said in a video statement posted to X.

Democrats have historically opposed voter ID laws, viewing them as unnecessary obstacles to casting a ballot that are likely to disproportionately affect voters who are low-income and people of color.

If the ballot measure passes, California voters would be required to present a photo identification when voting at a polling place, or submit a four-digit pin when sending a mail-in ballot.

Efforts to impose voter ID in solidly blue California have failed in the past. A poll released last month by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, however, found voters deadlocked on the issue, with 44% supporting it, 45% opposing and the rest undecided.

California is one of 14 states, along with the District of Columbia, that do not require voters to show ID when casting ballots, according to NBC News.

The California voter ID push has drawn national attention and money from Republicans, with the ballot measure committee raising $8.8m last year, according to Politico. Opponents are only beginning to mount a campaign to keep it from passing.

The California plebiscite comes as the White House is pushing for stricter federal requirements to cast a ballot. Trump demanded last week that Congress do away with the filibuster so Republicans can pass the Save America Act, which would impose a federal requirement to show proof of citizenship to cast a ballot.

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, signed into a law on 1 April a state bill modeled on the stalled federal act.

Opponents of voter ID laws have repeatedly challenged them in federal court.

Last month, US district judge Loretta Biggs upheld North Carolina’s 2018 voter ID law after it faced challenges from civil rights groups who said it would unconstitutionally infringe on Black and Latino voting rights.

In a separate case last year, the ninth US circuit court of appeals struck down key provisions of voter ID laws passed by Arizona in 2022, after finding that several challenged provisions “are unlawful measures of voter suppression”.

ANKARA

A 31-year-old suspect identified as Cole Thomas Allen is in custody following a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, DC, with authorities continuing to investigate his background and possible motives, media reports said late Saturday.

Citing official statements and eyewitness accounts, the reports identified Allen as being from California, later confirmed by US President Donald Trump, who called the suspect “a very sick person,” and said he was thought to have acted alone.

Trump, along with the first lady and several top Cabinet members, was escorted out of the Washington Hilton ballroom, where the event was taking place, by Secret Service. Shortly afterward, he said the suspect had been “apprehended” and shared photos of him on the ground shirtless, along with blurry security footage of what appeared to be a figure darting past security agents.

Officials said the suspect was armed with multiple weapons, including a shotgun, a handgun and several knives. Metropolitan Police interim chief Jeff Carroll said he was also a guest at the hotel hosting the dinner.

Also speaking after the incident, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said the suspect reportedly “rushed a Secret Service checkpoint” in a lobby before being stopped by agents.

An officer was shot during the incident but survived thanks to a bulletproof vest he was wearing.

“He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun, and the vest did the job,” Trump said, adding the officer was “in great shape.”

Witness accounts provided additional details about the suspect’s actions before the shooting.

A volunteer at the event, Helen Mabus, told the New York Post that the suspect appeared to assemble a “long” weapon in a lightly monitored area near a terrace-level entrance.

“He grabbed it out of a bag or something … it was long and didn’t look like a typical gun,” the daily quoted her as saying.

Mabus said the suspect was partially out of view of security while handling the weapon in a “makeshift room” used for storing bar carts.

“He put it together and … ran towards the stairs to go down to the ballroom,” she recounted.

Mabus said the suspect then began firing in multiple directions, estimating she heard at least 10 shots. “It just seemed like he was shooting all over the place,” she said, describing panic among guests.

Authorities said the suspect was later apprehended and transported to a hospital for evaluation.

Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for the District of Columbia, said the suspect would face two charges and is expected to be arraigned in federal court on Monday. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said additional charges may follow, noting that the investigation was ongoing.

FBI Director Kash Patel, who was also at the dinner, said the bureau had begun examining the suspect’s background and would “analyze all evidence immediately.”

While officials have said no clear motive was immediately clear, CBS News reported that

Allen admitted to security forces after his arrest that he intended to shoot Trump administration officials.

Citing two sources, the broadcaster said Allen did not specify that he was targeting Trump, only saying he was after “administration officials.”

The suspect is reported to have earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from California State University, and a Cole Allen appears among computer science graduates in the May 2025 commencement program of California State University, Dominguez Hills.

According to law enforcement sources cited by CBS News, Allen worked as a teacher with C2 Education in Torrance, a private tutoring service, and was named “Teacher of the Month” in December 2024, according to a Facebook post. It is unclear whether he was still employed there at the time of the incident.

White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting

The incident occurred during the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and other high-level figures were present.

Witnesses reported hearing loud “pop, pop, pop” sounds, prompting guests to take cover under tables as security forces responded.

The Trump couple, Vice President JD Vance and Cabinet members were evacuated from the head table, while other guests remained inside the ballroom.

Secret Service agents and law enforcement quickly intervened, securing the scene and taking the suspect into custody as the event was halted.