The Sarasota school administration’s green light comes after outcry and intervention by FIRE.
By Klaus Obermeit
Original Air Date: February 25, 2026
Host: The Torch troubles received extensive local media coverage and caught the attention of a national free speech organization. But after a month of dispute with their principal and a rather quiet ending, Pine View students are ready to get back to reporting school news. In a Zoom interview with WSLR News reporter Klaus Obermeit, six Pine View juniors and seniors, members of The Torch—the high school’s newspaper—reflected on their experiences and what they had learned.
Screen shot of one of the flagged articles.
Klaus Obermeit: The Torch troubles began on January 27 when Dr. Stephen Covert, Pine View’s principal, flagged two articles for review, withholding them from publication. One was a news story regarding student opposition to a school board resolution to comply with federal immigration agents, commonly called ICE. The other was an opinion piece criticizing the school board’s decision to change its meeting times from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m, effectively preventing students and teachers from attending. Covert claimed both articles were inappropriate due to bias and encouraging disruptive behavior.
Print version of The Torch
The Venice Gondolier said the articles were “censored,” and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune described them as “blocked.” WUSF reported the articles had been pulled from the paper and withheld from publication.
But the school district rejects these descriptions. Questions directed by this reporter to Principal Covert were forwarded to Craig Maniglia, Sarasota County Schools Director of Communications and Government Affairs. He stated that “No articles were ever barred or denied publication by Pine View Schools.” “During the review process, considerations were provided for discussion; however, those considerations were not a denial of publication.”
Jakob Roche, managing editor of The Torch, disagreed. He pointed out that:
Jakob Roche
Jakob Roche: They could have just, conceivably, kept on pushing out that review date longer and longer. You reach a point where it might not be an outright denial but it’s an effective denial of publication of content.
KO: On February 17, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Freedom, a national advocacy group based in Pennsylvania, got into the act. FIRE—as it is known by its acronym—sent a five-page letter to the school district condemning Covert’s actions as “unreasonable.” It explained that the articles did include opposing views and said that his claims of bias “cannot justify censorship.” FIRE also claimed that Covert used artificial intelligence to analyze and criticize the content of the articles, a practice rejected in newsrooms.
The next day, the district released both articles for publication unchanged except that the opinion piece included a disclaimer that “The views expressed…are those of the author, not those of Pine View School or Sarasota County Schools.”
Both articles were published this Monday on PVTorch.com.
Ava Lenerz is the editor in chief of The Torch and author of the news article about the school board’s change in meeting times.
Ava Lenerz
Ava Lenerz: We’re very glad the stories were approved with minimal editing and that we were able to get them published, but we hope to find a solution in the future so that this situation doesn’t happen again.
For me, it, again, reinforced my belief in the power of the press. As student journalists, we see the change that we can make with our words. This whole situation has shown that it’s real—a community can come together and advocate for a change, and it can happen.
One of the great parts about The Torch is that it does give a real-life journalism experience, and I know I’m really grateful for this opportunity. This situation has been really unfortunate, but most of the time, the administration has been really supportive, and the independence afforded to us has been really invaluable to us our careers as student journalists and, to some of us, our future careers as actual journalists.
KO: Jakob Roche, the managing editor, blames the political environment, not the school administration.
Screen shot of The Torch homepage
JR: I think what happened with us—the whole incident with the administration and the stories—I think that’s a reflection of the political environment. It’s extremely polarized at the school board meetings as well as in our community and in our country as a whole. We don’t fault the administration for making the decision that they did. Personally, I believe it was out of an effort to try to seem as non-biased non-partisan as possible. I think that to a little bit of an extreme, and they interpreted that such that we can’t cover any events that could be possibly construed as being partisan one way or the other. I think, really, the problem isn’t with our administration; the problem isn’t with Dr. Covert; it’s with the situation that we’ve all created in this community—in this country as a whole—that causes people to make those decisions. That’s polarized this nation to such a degree that some people feel that we can’t accurately represent the truth without being partisan in some way. I think this excess of caution that has been created by this environment is really the problem here. It’s not a specific person. It’s not a specific group. I think we’re all to blame for this partisan situation that we’ve created.
KO: Asked what is the solution, Jakob Roche had this answer:
JR: It’s not an easy one. But I think we remain committed to working with our administration. We think that’s the only viable path. We don’t want to alienate our administration. We think that we can work very well with them.
KO: Reporting for WSLR, this is Klaus Obermeit.
Disclosure: Alex Lieberman, author of one of the flagged articles, is a former intern at WSLR.
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