In November 2009, a dispute erupted between school officials and the student newspaper, The Statesman, regarding censorship of stories. The administration stopped publication of the November 20 issue, objecting to stories regarding drugs, teen pregnancy and shoplifting. When students wanted to leave the front page blank in protest of the censorship, the officials instead required the students to produce other stories approved by the administration.

The Stevenson public information officer released a statement November 20 stating the administration did not think anonymous sources discussing alleged illegal activity was fit for print.

The Chicago Tribune, in a November 26 editorial, said the school was wrong to force students to produce administration-approved stories: "This isn't editing, it's censorship."The Society of Professional Journalists' Freedom of Information chairman called the censorship "immoral, un-American, irresponsible and not fit for education."

Following the censorship fiasco, 11 of 14 Statesman staffers — and all the paper's top editors — resigned from their positions at the start of the spring 2010 semester.^[