Federal courts of appeals have generally held that high school officials may exercise prior restraint regarding student publications if constitutionally sound procedural safeguards are available. A study synthesized what the lower courts have said about prior restraint and examined how those affected by the rulings have responded. The intent was to identify factors related to levels of awareness and compliance or noncompliance by the affected school personnel. A telephone survey was made of 152 public school principals and newspaper advisers in two federal judicial districts. The two districts were chosen because they had issued contrasting decisions in high school prior restraint cases. The results failed to support the belief that different positions by the federal courts of appeals account for statistically significant differences in the awareness and noncompliance of principals and advisers. No significant difference was found between the means of principals' and advisers' awareness scores. Awareness was also found to be an unreliable indicator of noncompliance or restraint, especially among principals. Advisers were found to have higher awareness scores if they attended professional meetings at which student rights were discussed and knew of another school with censorship problems. Restraint was more apparent among advisers and principals with no journalism training. (FL)