In a scenario that sounds straight out of the start of a dystopian teen novel, administrators at Northwest High School, a public high school in Nebraska, have closed the school’s student newspaper after more than 50 years of operation right after the paper published articles on LGBTQ+ issues, as covered by local outlet the Grand Island Independent.
The newspaper, called the Viking Saga, includes LGBTQ+ articles in its June edition. Given that June is Pride Month, it’s not terribly surprising. Articles included an editorial opposing Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law as well as a piece on the history of Pride Month and the history of homophobia. (As a gay person myself, I for one can’t imagine how cool that would have been to see in my school newspaper. Anyway ...)
An email from an employee of the school to the Independent alleges that the paper was shuttered because the school board and superintendent were “unhappy” with the editorial content of the most recent issue. Hmm.
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Principal P.J. Smith passed the paper’s questions on to Jeff Edwards, who serves as superintendent for the district, according to the outlet. The outlet says Edwards said it was an “administrative decision” and did not answer why or when this decision was made.
But students involved in the paper definitely have their own ideas about why the decision came to be.
Emma Smith, assistant editor of the paper, told the outlet that the school board banned the use of chosen names and pronouns in the paper and that they were told the paper could only publish names assigned at birth in the future. This happened after the paper published an issue with correct names and pronouns for students—including the byline of an openly trans student and staff writer for the paper.
That student? They ended up having their byline changed to their birth name for the June issue, which is obviously a violent form of “outing” and truly horrifying. That student, Marcus Pennell, told the outlet it was the first time the school had “officially” made him feel unwanted and felt like a “really big deal.”
It is a really big deal. Including being legitimately dangerous for queer students—and especially trans students, like Pennell—this all also seems like a big violation of First Amendment rights. Especially because, per the Independent, it doesn’t seem folks in charge are even pretending otherwise.
Zach Mader, who serves as vice president for the school board, told the outlet that in the last issue of the year, there was some “hostility” and there were editorials he would say were “LGBTQ.” Mader went on to say there had been discussions about “doing away” with the newspaper if they couldn’t control the content.
“If [taxpayers] read that [issue],” he continued to the outlet. “They would have been like, ‘Holy cow. What is going on at our school?’”
What’s going on at that school? Sounds like the school has smart and brave young people who are writing relevant, timely, and honest articles for a long-established paper that’s literally won awards. In other words, sounds like the school has some budding First Amendment advocates—especially thanks to this debacle.