Officials tear out yearbook pages, prompt censorship claims

BIGELOW, Ark. (AP) — Officials at an Arkansas high school physically tore out pages from the school’s published yearbook claiming “community backlash,” an action the Student Press Law Center condemned as censorship. The SPLC and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette both requested documentation regarding the community backlash. Hadar Harris, executive director of SPLC, said when asked for documentation regarding the community backlash, Heidi Wilson, the superintendent at East End School District, could not produce any. The two-page timeline depicting news events from 2020 and 2021, including the U.S. Capitol riot and the several police killings were ripped out by hand. Harris demands administrators a reprint of the censored pages of the yearbook along with a written apology.