District Will Reinstate Student Paper Shut Down Over LGBTQ Issue

Just days after publishing an edition that featured stories and commentaries on LGBTQ+ topics, authorities at a Nebraska school forced to close the award-winning campus newspaper in August.

It has reportedly been decided to bring it back the following year by the same Nebraska public school system.

However, the newspaper will be upgraded, the instructor who suggested the publishing said, and will be in digital form.

District Should Restore Student Paper That Was Terminated Over LGBTQ Issue

A civil rights group has stated it may pursue legal action in response to the closing earlier this year, and they believe it is not acceptable.

Press freedom supporters criticized the earlier decision to close down The Saga, the newspaper at Northwest High School in Grand Island’s Northwest Public Schools, as an attempt at repression. The Saga now needs more than just permission to continue publishing.

The Grand Island Independent this week acquired information regarding the revival of The Saga from Kirsten Gilliland, the coordinator, and instructor for the school’s newspaper initiative.

According to the information she provided, The Saga will quickly reappear in the school’s course options in the spring term, but it will do so in a digital version and ostensibly without her leading it.

The Saga’s Attempt To Lessen Homophobia

The editorial headlined Pride and prejudice: LGBTQIA+ was published in the newspaper’s June edition and debated the beginnings of Pride Month and the evolution of homophobia.

A piece of editorial opposition to a Florida statute known as the “Don’t Say Gay law” that forbids some education on gender identity and sexual orientation was also presented. On May 22, a bizarre email was sent to The Independent by a school staffer canceling the printing services for the campus newspaper.

In a nutshell, the email stated that the education department and administration were dissatisfied with the editorial substance of the most recent issue and that they were terminating the publication.

The publication’s dissolution also occurred a month after its employees received criticism for publishing students’ chosen names and pronouns. Officials from the district informed students that from now on they could only use birth names.

Later, to obtain additional information regarding the reinstallation of the newspaper, the Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union was called.

It said that it had been unable to ascertain if the student publication and a teaching initiative connected to it had been revived for the upcoming academic year.

Another time, the Independent contacted the Superintendent of Northwest Public Schools, Jeff Edwards, but he didn’t respond.

He also failed to respond right away to a telephone conversation left Monday by The Associated Press requesting information.

Addressing The Infractions Caused By Terminating The Saga

Rose Godinez, a counsel for the ACLU, argued that the district must take other action in addition to just reintroducing the student newspaper.

The sources have revealed that a letter addressing the reinstallation of the newspaper and the infringement being created by such conduct of shutting down the publication was delivered to Edwards on August 29.

The district’s efforts to suppress student journalism and opinions, according to the Nebraska ACLU, are a violation of the student’s First Amendment principles of free expression and equal protection under the law in both Nebraska and the United States. Constitutions.

Godinez added that in addition to creating and implementing rules that safeguard LGBTQ students’ rights as well as the rights of student journalists, the district must address these abuses. Additionally, it must publicly apologize for its mistakes and declare its dedication to LGBTQ acceptance.

The ACLU issued a warning in its letter and stated that it was looking into all legal options to combat the breach of these rights.

In addition, the ACLU sent a notice to the district requesting that it keep all records of correspondence about the decision to end the student newspaper program, including emails, texts, and other written materials.

The school system provided some of the government documents that the Nebraska ACLU had demanded within the last few days, according to a report released on Monday.