Censorship, the new education

After administrators created a new rule where transgender students writing for the newspaper must use their birth names on bylines, student journalists from the Viking Saga, Northwest High School’s student newspaper, located in Grand Island, decided to dedicate their final June edition to LGBTQ+ issues. They wrote columns regarding the issues and a news story on Pride Month. To them, this was an issue of the upmost importance.

Later that month, the same school administrators shut down the newspaper program, enraging those who worked in the program. 

Since then, the story has caught like fire, with news organizations like AP News, The Washington Post and The New York Times covering the story. 

They’ve called it extreme censorship and administrative control. And that’s exactly what it is.

This is the thing many student journalists, especially those in Nebraska, have been fearing for a long time. Every year, another school paper joins those that have been told what they can and can’t publish. Students are forced to speak with administrators, begging them to allow them to cover topics that they deem important

It’s outrageous that, in the country that put the rights of the press in its First Amendment, this is something that can happen. 

Unfortunately, since the 1988 Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier Supreme Court decision, high school administrators have been given the right to censor their student press. That is, as long as their decision is “reasonably related to a legitimate pedological purpose.”

In layman’s terms that means the decision must have a reasonable educational purpose. 

But what was the educational purpose behind the Northwest High School’s administration censoring the Viking Saga?

Zach Mader, the vice principal of Northwest High School, told The Independent that the administration had talked of “doing away with our newspaper” if the board deemed the content “inappropriate” and the last issue had caused “a little bit of hostility amongst some” of the board members. 

To me, that doesn’t seem like a valid reason for shutting the paper down. Where is the pedological purpose behind some hostile feelings? Why are issues regarding LGBTQ+ rights, issues that affect part of the student population, viewed as inappropriate?

I would love to know the educational reason behind the decision. Because, in my mind, it sounds like homophobia is the real issue. 

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of high school papers being censored. A few years ago, I had the privilege to testify on behalf of LB 88. This bill would prohibit the censoring of high school news organizations in Nebraska. Alongside me were high school students that shared their personal stories of being censored. Unfortunately, the bill didn’t pass. But I still believe that this is something that should be cemented into our state’s laws.

Why should public schools, the places where students are supposed to form opinions on the world around them and share those ideas with their peers, get to dictate what students want to write about?

Not only is this terrible education for future journalists, but it sends a bad message of what the older generations are willing to tolerate in terms of oppression.

We’re supposed to be the country of the free, where everyone can address their grievances. I think it’s time we give students that right back.