A political cartoon removed from a Nebraska high school newspaper earlier this year has returned to public attention following a new report on censorship in US student journalism.

Aidan McClaren, a student at Gretna East High School, drew the cartoon for the school’s student newspaper, The Wingspan. It was published online on February 10 and criticized US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by referring to earlier periods in American history, including the Palmer Raids and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

School administrators ordered the cartoon removed two days later.

The Guardian returned to McClaren’s case on September 4 in a report examining censorship faced by high school journalists across the United States.

The cartoon shows a student looking into a factory marked “History.” Inside, gears labelled “Bureaucracy” and “Loopholes” operate machinery connected to scenes of detention and government action. The student asks: “Why does this look familiar …?”

According to the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), administrators said the cartoon could be interpreted as the school district’s position on a politically controversial issue and raised concerns that it could alienate students or cause disruption.

McClaren later wrote an opinion piece about the removal of the cartoon and censorship of student media. That article was also held for administrative approval.

A cartoon — or a counter-cartoon

FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, later reported that administrators offered the student newspaper two ways to restore McClaren’s cartoon: publish a pro-ICE cartoon alongside it, or add an explanation of the original work for readers.

The students appealed the decision instead.

Nicholas Mitchell, another journalist at The Wingspan, took the case to the Gretna Public Schools Board of Education with support from the Student Press Law Center.

The appeal argued that student editors had previously been allowed to make their own editorial decisions and challenged the use of possible controversy or disruption as grounds for removing the cartoon.

School board adopts prior-review policy

The dispute continued into the summer.

On June 22, the Gretna Public Schools Board adopted a new policy for school-sponsored student media. FIRE reported that the policy places student publications under the supervision and control of school authorities and allows advisers, principals or their representatives to review material before publication.

The change formally gave school authorities the power to conduct the kind of pre-publication review that the students had challenged.

McClaren’s case was one of several highlighted in The Guardian‘s September 4 examination of censorship in US high school journalism.

The report cited Student Press Law Center figures showing a 17 percent increase in censorship-related requests for assistance over the previous year.

From censorship to New Voices

McClaren has since joined efforts to strengthen legal protections for student journalists in Nebraska and took part in the Student Press Law Center’s New Voices Student Leaders Institute.

New Voices campaigns for state laws limiting administrative censorship of student media. According to the SPLC, 18 states had adopted such protections by 2026.

Nebraska has not.

McClaren’s case is now among those being cited in the renewed debate over censorship in US high school journalism.