A study examined the freedom of the high school press in North Carolina to determine whether publication guidelines should be in place, and if so, what those guidelines should contain. High school newspaper advisors, high school principals, and high school newspaper editors from large and small, urban and rural, eastern and western high schools were interviewed on several occasions. The nine advisors interviewed for this study attended the North Carolina Scholastic Press Association Workshop at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in June, 1987 and to that extent are not representative of the generality of North Carolina high school newspaper advisors, most of whom are untrained and have never attended a journalism workshop. But, although better informed than average, results indicate that few of the study advisors are well informed on matters of journalistic importance (North Carolina has no certification requirements for secondary journalism teachers), all practice prior review, and all censor student writing by cutting controversial material and instituting an atmosphere of intimidation that causes students to refrain from printing certain materials in the school newspaper. Findings suggest that most of the problems that confront the high school newspaper advisor and staff can be avoided if every high school adopts a clear, legally explicit set of guidelines and if advisors are required to be well-trained. (Ninety-seven notes are attached.) (RS)