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Texas principal censors paper, bans all editorials and ousts award-winning adviser

TEXAS — After censoring the Eagle Nation Online three times this academic year over concerns that stories made the school look bad, the principal of Prosper (Texas) High School, did not renew the contract of a nationally acclaimed newspaper and yearbook adviser. 

Lori Oglesbee-Petter, a journalism teacher with 34 years of experience in three states, has been at Prosper since May 2016. Last year alone, her journalism students racked up more than 175 state and national journalism awards.    
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The SPLC's coverage of the event spurred many local and national organizations to pick up the story:
“Under her guidance, the young journalists she has worked with have regularly taken home top honors. And how does this principal reward such achievements? He fires her and tells the students not to cover anything but happy news.”

— SPLC SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL MIKE HIESTAND
Two newsrooms (one local and one student newsroom) also offered to run the Prosper students' editorials in their publications. 
Reporters and journalism advisers across the country spoke forcefully against the corrosive effects of censorship.

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