Editorial: In Support of Northwest High School’s Newspaper
We say gay. To the student journalists of the ‘Viking Saga’ in Grand Island, Nebraska, we stand with you.
Courtesy of Brimmer and May School
Lower School students created a pride flag collage for Pride Month this year.
From 1,500 miles away, our Editorial Board stands in solidarity with the brave student journalists of the Viking Saga at Northwest High School in Grand Island, Nebraska. We say gay, and student newspapers all over the world should too.
Last June, Northwest High School’s newsroom published its latest edition of the Viking Saga. They challenged ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments across the country and in their home state of Nebraska, aiming to educate readers about what gender and sexuality really are. Then, they were shut down.
According to an August 29 report by The New York Times, the Northwest High School administration enacted homophobic and transphobic rules for the newsroom last March, including requiring transgender reporters to use their deadnames—their names assigned at birth, which may differ from their chosen name. Students created the June issue in response, and the school administration subsequently shut down its journalism program in its entirety. This is unacceptable.
This event is truly grim for the Viking Saga journalists, who have been censored and stripped of the platform they need. As the Editorial Board of The Gator, we understand how vital the role of a school newspaper is for giving students a voice—a voice to share personal stories, challenge the administration, and share the truth with their community. To have that opportunity taken away is abominable, and it is a harrowing reality of recent widespread legislative attacks against young queer and transgender people in the United States.
The voices of LGBTQ+ students must be amplified for everyone to hear, but a recent flurry of school incidents following the passing of legislation in several parts of the U.S., including the recent ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws in Florida, has threatened young journalists’ opportunities to free speech.
Northwest High School’s administration must reinstate the Viking Saga to return a platform for student voice at their school. Importantly, the school’s LGBTQ+ students deserve an apology. If schools do not pledge to support students of all identities, they are endangering their community’s health and restricting their ability to speak their minds.
Earlier this month, Margaret Renkl published a guest essay in The New York Times titled “Student Journalists Reveal a Changing World. Let Them.”
“Red state bureaucrats and politicians have been at war with the First Amendment for a while now,” Renkl wrote. “Newspapers at public high schools are not protected by the First Amendment in the same way that professional newspapers are.”
Renkl understands the gravity of the situation and the importance of student journalism during this period of attack on the rights of LGBTQ+ students.
“There appears to be no limit to the willingness of red-state officials to politicize simple human decency toward L.G.B.T.Q. students,” Renkl wrote. “Decline to use the names and pronouns they wish to be called by? Check. Refuse to allow them to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender? Check. Prevent them from competing in school sports? Check. Force schools to out transgender students to their parents? Check, check, check.”
To the student journalists of the Viking Saga in Grand Island, Nebraska, we support you and fight with you. You are a newsroom of brave, strong individuals. You need your newspaper back.
