After an LGBTQ issue, Nebraska school officials close the newspaper

• The staff of Northwest Public Schools’ 54-year-old Saga newspaper was informed on May 19 of its elimination.
• An email from a school employee said it was “unhappy with the last issue’s editorial content”.
• The paper’s demise also came a month after its staff was reprimanded for publishing students’ preferred names.

Just days after publishing its final edition, administrators at a Nebraska university shut down the school’s award-winning student newspaper, which led proponents of press freedom to label the decision an act of censorship.

The Grand Island Independent reports that the 54-year-old Saga newspaper, published by Northwest Public Schools, informed its staff of its demise on May 19. The journal had published its June issue three days prior, which had an article headlined “Pride and prejudice: LGBTQIA+” on the beginnings of Pride Month and the background of homophobia. It also had an editorial against a Florida statute known as “Don’t Say Gay” that forbids some lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Grand Island-based district administrators have not disclosed when or why the decision to discontinue the student paper was taken. However, a May 22 email from a school official to the Independent cancelling printing services for the student newspaper stated that it was because “the school board and superintendent are displeased with the editorial content of the last issue.”

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A month after the paper’s employees received criticism for publishing students’ preferred pronouns and names, the paper was shut down. Officials from the district informed the pupils that from this point on, only birth names could be used.

Saga’s assistant editor in 2022, Emma Smith, said that the school board had informed the student paper of the prohibition on favoured names. The transgender student and Saga staff writer Marcus Pennell had his byline altered in the June edition to “Meghan” Pennell against his will as a result of that decision.

It was the first time the school had formally stated, “We don’t really want you here,” according to Pennell. “You know, to me, that was a significant issue.”

Northwest Principal P.J. Smith forwarded the Independent’s inquiries to district superintendent Jeff Edwards, who would only comment that it was “school administrative decision” when asked when and why the student paper was removed.

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