PHOTO COURTSEY OF AIDAN MCCLAREN

A Gretna East High School student political cartoon criticizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was removed from the school’s news site by district officials, prompting debate over student press freedom and censorship amid rising ICE arrests locally and nationwide.

During the first year of the second Trump administration, Nebraska has seen a 329% increase in arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to data from the Deportation Data Project analyzed by Nebraska Public Media, and Gov. Jim Pillen announced the opening of an ICE detention center in the state in October, 2025 as part of the administration’s immigration enforcement strategy. During this, and as reports of violent ICE arrests and deaths in Minnesota emerged, Gretna East High School’s student-run news website published a political cartoon — which was removed from their website by district administration within two days.  

The cartoon, uploaded to the Wingspan news site in February, criticized ICE and expressed the artist’s opinion that a history of oppression is repeating itself. The cartoon was published in the opinion section with a red disclaimer that it reflected the views of the reporter, not the views of the Wingspan or school. 

“I wanted to do it because, although ICE might not affect me personally, I know that it does affect people in our community, and I understand that those voices need to be heard even if they’re not the ones that are actually speaking it,” Aidan McClaren, a Gretna East High School junior and the Wingspan staff reporter who created the cartoon, said. 

After being reviewed by editors and the Wingspan’s advisor, the cartoon was posted. 

“I was so excited because we don’t usually get a lot of editorial cartoons in our publication,” Madeline Petrick, a Gretna East High School senior and the Wingspan’s editor in chief, said. “So, it was great that he had made one. … We all looked at it and all unanimously agreed that we should post it. My advisor was all on board because, again, she was very happy that we had an editorial cartoon for the website.” 

Two days later, the cartoon was no longer on the Wingspan’s site. Petrick said the staff was surprised because they had published editorial cartoons with political messages before. 

Travis Lightle, the superintendent of Gretna Public Schools, said the cartoon was taken down after the building principal reached out to him due to people “questioning” the cartoon. Lightle visited with his executive cabinet, and they decided to take it down in accordance with their controversial issues policy.  

This policy, which is no. 6369 in the Gretna East High School student-parent handbook for this academic year, states, “In order that students may develop intelligent attitudes and understandings concerning significant aspects of living, they should be afforded opportunities within the classroom to deal with such issues to the extent appropriate for their level of maturity and the educational mission of the district.” 

The administration deemed that the cartoon’s content didn’t serve the district’s educational mission. 

“Without supporting journalistic context, a standalone cartoon risks oversimplifying a serious issue and potentially alienating segments of our student body, which can potentially cause a substantial disruption to the educational environment,” the human resources director for Gretna Public Schools, Andrew Rinaldi, said in an email statement. 

Part of the concern was how prominent and controversial the issue of ICE arrests was at the time. 

“This would have been during the time when all of that stuff was happening in Minnesota,” Lightle said. “So, this was a pretty hot topic, so to speak, at the time, and it was up and we already had a couple people questioning it.” 

The administration has used the 1988 Supreme Court Case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier as justification for their policy and for the cartoon’s removal. This case set the precedent that schools are not required to protect student speech in school-sponsored content that is “inconsistent with ‘the shared values of a civilized social order.'” 

The Student Press Law Center (SPLC), which the Gretna students reached out to, has argued that it doesn’t hold up in this situation. The SPLC advised the students and helped get their story picked up by the local media. 

“The issues presented in this case — administrative censorship of a student editorial cartoon and the imposition of prior review — are not only matters of student expression, but also of educational integrity, legal consistency and the board’s own stated commitment to student learning and engagement,” SPLC lawyer Jonathan Gaston-Falk said, according to the center’s official statement regarding the situation. 

The school district disagrees. 

“We worked closely with our lawyer in how we handled the situation, and we’re comfortable that we were following the law. … We called former World-Herald reporters and just had discussions, so we tried to do a lot of due diligence, making sure we were handling it the right way,” Lightle said.  

Lightle added that he also thinks the decision protected the students. 

“We never want to put the students in the crosshairs of a national organization, regardless of what that is, when they can be negatively attacked because there are some ugly stuff that happens via social media and those things, and we want to make sure that we’re always protecting our students and our staff,” Lightle said. “So that’s where we were trying to find a path forward, so that students can learn and write about issues happening, but also providing that little bit of cover from … ugliness that can occur.” 

McClaren thinks this backfired. 

“Them censoring it created more … spread on social media, more than it would have if they had just left it alone,” McClaren said. “And I’ve received messages from people that are unfortunate, and I wouldn’t like to receive them. But I understand that it’s controversial, and I understand people are going to have different opinions. So, really, them saying that it was going to protect me from backlash — I mean, I’ve received more backlash since they censored it.”  

After receiving help from the SPLC spreading the word about the cartoon being pulled from their site, the Wingspan staff has now shifted their focus to advocacy for laws protecting student speech. They’re advocating for a New Voices law in Nebraska. 

“The goal originally was to get the cartoon back, but it’s transformed into the big, big goal to get it [student speech freedom] at the state level,” McClaren said.  

They’ve started by speaking at a school board meeting last week, hoping to create change in district policy to eventually pave the way for statewide legislation. 

“We spoke at the school board meeting, because I’m working on more of the advocacy side for New Voices in general for the whole state,” Petrick said. “With this whole cartoon the SPLC said it’s really important for us to get a district policy, because it’s sort of like local legislation. And so that sets a good foundation for New Voices [here in Nebraska].” 

There are currently 18 states with New Voices laws. These laws are part of  “a student-powered nonpartisan grassroots movement of state-based activists who seek to protect student press freedom with state laws,” according to the SPLC website.  

While the Wingspan staff are fighting for these laws, they aren’t afraid to keep publishing political and controversial content in the meantime. 

“At the end of the day, we’re just trying to learn and be journalists and help our community be more informed. … So this is lighting the fire,” Petrick said. “This makes me want to just do more, because it’s so important for young people and students at my school to be interacting with news and national news, like things like ICE. And my hope is that our student newspaper can grow into even more of that.” 

This controversy comes amid a broad escalation of ICE activity in Nebraska and nationwide.  

When the Wingspan published the political cartoon, Operation Metro Surge was underway in the Midwest. The operation brought 3,000 ICE agents to the Twin Cities in Minnesota earlier this year. Two people died and there were about 4,000 arrests, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). According to the minneapolismn.gov website, it cost the city over $203.1 million due to losses “to the economy, community livelihoods, neighbors’ mental health and to food and shelter security.” On February 11, the Flatwater Free Press reported that at least 20 people arrested by ICE in Minnesota were being held in Nebraska.  

Zeroing in on the cornhusker state, ICE arrests are up 329% from 2024 to 2025 — another part of the backdrop in this political cartoon controversy. Rob Jeffreys, the director of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, said last Monday that the goal is to have the state’s immigrant detention facility at its full 300-person capacity by July 1. It is currently under capacity.  

Nationwide, ICE is arresting about 1,100 people a day — up from about 600 during this time last year — according to the New York Times.  

“Nebraska has been and will continue to assist DHS and ICE in assuring that criminal illegal aliens are housed appropriately and securely. This partnership with President Trump’s administration to deliver on his promise to secure our country has been a success, and it will continue,” an official statement from Pillen last month read. 

With over 200 international students attending Creighton University, these ICE arrests may feel relevant to some members of the university community. “Know Your Rights” cards are widely available in several buildings on the Omaha campus. The cards explain what a person can legally do if they encounter an ICE agent. The Student Life Office printed and distributed the cards for students and the Human Resources department made them available to faculty and staff, according to Vice Provost for Student Life Eric Baldwin, DMin. Similar information is available on the Phoenix campus. The cards were written by a community resource, the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement.  

“I think my message would be to all students at Creighton, and that is, we are a community that embraces our Jesuit mission and values,” Baldwin said via email. “One of the most significant ways in which we live this value daily is through the adherence to ‘cura personalis’ [care for the whole person]. We care for one another holistically. Any student (or faculty and staff person for that matter), regardless of background or experience, who needs support or guidance can find that through multiple offices and services.” 

As the Trump administration continues its immigration enforcement, the polarization of these policies is reflected in the political cartoon and student speech controversy at Gretna East High School.