When I first heard the story I immediately began a First Amendment analysis. The next morning I read the story in the Strib and saw a copy of the picture. 
The incident, although it implicates free Speech rights, does not even rise to that level.
The Strib quotes the superintendent as citing the image’s potential “as offensive by community standards”. The school system's superintendent insults the community more by his view that the newspaper’s readers would be too stupid to understand what the story covered, a school play.
Even assuming for he sake of argument that some idiot might be offended because he only saw the picture and did not read the caption or article explaining the image, does this justify the school's decision? Absolutely not. These students do not surrender their constitutional rights at the school door. The newspaper in no way disrupts the school's purpose.
"Any departure from absolute regimentation may cause trouble. Any variation from the majority's opinion may inspire fear. Any word spoken, in class, in the lunchroom, or on the campus, that deviates from the views of another person may start an argument or cause a disturbance. But our Constitution says we must take this risk; and our history says that it is this sort of hazardous freedom-this kind of openness-that is the basis of our national strength and of the independence and vigor of Americans who grow up and live in this relatively permissive, often disputatious, society." Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
The time long passed in which our high schools should be debating the Iraq War. They are the great pool from which the military draws.
