Back in May of the 2021-2022 school year, Northwest High School’s newspaper, in Grand Island, Nebraska was shut down by their administration due to the publication of three articles centering around the LGBTQ+ community. These three stories include two editorials and one news story. 

One of the editorials consisted of a student expressing their opinion on the “Don’t Say Gay” bill that was passed in Florida, as well as educating students about the issue. The other editorial discussed the science of gender and the student’s opinion about transitioning. The third article was a news story, touching on the history of pride month and the LGBTQ+ community. 

We as a staff feel that this decision that Northwest Public Schools administration made is wrong and is a complete violation of the students’ First Amendment right. The First Amendment of the Constitution states that it protects our freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and our right to petition. By putting the Northwest newspaper on pause that takes away these students’ rights to freedom of speech and press. 

Two of these stories were editorials, which is entirely an opinion piece on where the student or staff stand about an issue. The school officials that made this decision have not disclosed why it led to this. 

According to the Grand Island Independent, Northwest superintendent Jeff Edwards said that the assumption that the newspaper was entirely shut down is wrong, and it has been put more on a pause instead. However we feel that neither of these editorials displayed any reason to pause the entire newspaper.

Because two of these are opinion pieces, students should have the right to express what they believe in. These school officials and the administration should not be able to take that away from them just because they disagree with these ideas. 

Lawyer and LGBTQ+ legal policy counsel Sara Rips says that school officials should not and cannot suppress the idea that LGBTQ+ people belong just because they do not want other students to encounter it. 

We as a staff feel that by putting the Northwest newspaper on pause, this just shows how little respect and acceptance the LGBTQ+ community has in that school district. This also does not ensure a safe learning environment for these students.