Former student sues Nebraska high school for shutting down paper over LGBTQ+ stories

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The Nebraska branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), alleging First Amendment violations, filed a federal lawsuit against public school administrators who shut down a high school newspaper after it published an issue that featured multiple news stories and editorials on LGBTQ+ issues. 

Key Players

Marcus Pennell, a former student of Grand Island Northwest High School, was a reporter for the Viking Saga newspaper during the 2021-22 school year. Pennell identifies as transgender. 

The Nebraska ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of Pennell and ​​the Nebraska High School Press Association, an organization that supports student journalists throughout the state.  

Jeffrey Edwards serves as superintendent of Northwest Public School District (NPSD). Dan Leiser presides over the NPSD board, and Zach Mader is the NPSD vice president.  

Tim Krupicka is the principal of Grand Island Northwest High School.

Further Details

Before March 2022, according to the lawsuit, there was no interference by the school administration with the Viking Saga. That changed when Krupicka told the student journalists that they could not list their pronouns or use their preferred names on their bylines, forcing writers like Pennell to deadname themselves, the Nebraska Examiner reported. 

When asked to explain the policy change, Krupicka told the students it was related to district policy on “controversial” topics. In response to students’ inability to use their preferred pronouns or names, Krupicka said that “research was being done on both sides of the issue,” the lawsuit alleges. 

The termination of the paper finally came after the June 2022 issue of the Viking Saga, released on May 16. It featured an article written by Pennell on Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by its critics, which initially banned “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” from kindergarten through third grade. The issue also had an article on the history of LGBTQ+ rights and another on gender identity. 

Pieces from the June issue quickly circulated through the NPSD administration. On May 17, Mader sent an email to Leiser and other board members, asking, “Has anyone read our school paper this month?” 

“I’m sure this is a revenge tactic from the pronoun thing a month or so ago,” Leiser wrote in an email to Edwards, adding, “I’m hot on this one, because it’s not ok. The national media does the same crap and I’ve had enough of it. No more school paper, in my opinion. You give someone an inch, they take a mile.” 

On May 19, the school announced it was shutting down newspaper class and the Viking Saga.  The newspaper returned in November, but only in an online format.  

Outcome 

District officials attempt to explain the shutdown

After the paper was closed, The Grand Island Independent interviewed multiple school board members to ask why. Mader said it was because “There were editorials that were essentially, I guess what I would say, LGBTQ.” He also said that, in the past, discussions had occurred over “doing away with our news if we were not going to be able to control content that we saw (as) inappropriate.” 

Leiser told The Independent that “most people were upset” over the stories that appeared in the June 2022 issue. “If 90% of people say the [stories] shouldn’t have been written in the first place, they weren’t happy with reading it in the news — I’m not talking me, I’m talking high school students — why do you think this is newsworthy?” he added. It is unclear where he obtained the 90% figure.

Pennell sues school district 

On March 31, 2023, the ACLU sued the NPSD and Edwards on Pennell’s behalf, accusing them of violating the First Amendment by closing down the paper, The Associated Press reported. 

The suit alleges that the district and Edwards engaged in viewpoint discrimination, arguing that the paper was shut down because officials disliked the views expressed in the June issue. It also accused the defendants of retaliation by violating Pennel’s First Amendment rights because he expressed a viewpoint they disagreed with. 

In an ACLU statement, Pennell said he had filed the lawsuit because he “felt [he] had a responsibility to seek accountability and advocate for the students who are still there, especially the LGBTQ+ kids.” He hopes “censorship is not the end of this story.”

As of May 1, 2023, there were no further developments.