A former high school journalist and the Nebraska High School Press Association have sued the Grand Island Northwest School District over the shutdown of the school newspaper last May after it published an LGBTQ-focused edition.
The federal lawsuit claims the district and superintendent Jefrey Edwards violated the 1st Amendment when it ended the Viking Saga newspaper. The district later agreed to bring back the paper in digital form.
Former student journalist Marcus Pennell, who is transgender, says he’s suing because he was “crushed” by the paper closing. Pennell added “It is hard to find words for what it felt like watching people who were supposed to be supporting our education instead silence us for covering issues impacting our lives.”
Saga newspaper staff were informed of its elimination three days after the final edition of the school year was printed. The edition included an article titled “Pride and Prejudice: LGBTQIA+,” on the origins of Pride Month and the history of homophobia.
It also had an editorial opposing a Florida law, dubbed by critics as “Don’t Say Gay,” that bans some lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The district has not commented on the lawsuit, but Superintendent Edwards last year called the shutdown “an administrative decision,” while multiple school board members publicly stated their objection to the Saga’s LGBTQ content.
An email from a school employee canceling the paper’s printing services said it was “because the school board and superintendent are unhappy with the last issue’s editorial content.”
The lawsuit also claims Pennell was told 2 months earlier that he and others could use only names assigned to them at birth in their bylines and that they could not list their pronouns.
Society is collapsing before our eyes folks. 20 years ago, this was unheard of. We have raised a bunch of cry babies.