Reporter’s Notebook
RICK HOLTZ
Welcome to 2022 people.
Recently national news was made not too far from here when the Grand Island Northwest Public Schools made the decision to eliminate its journalism program and the student newspaper. Now former students and press freedom advocates are calling the decision an act of censorship.
The decision was made at the end of last school year after the student newspaper, the Saga, published articles and editorials that dealt with LGBTQIA+ issues. A few months before that issue, school officials reportedly reprimanded students after printing preferred pronouns and names that did not match a student’s birth certificate.
Again, let me say: Welcome to 2022.
The ACLU of Nebraska has chimed in and called the elimination of the program and student newspaper censorship. Nebraska Press Association attorney Max Kautsch was quoted in a newspaper saying that the decision violates the students’ right to free speech, unless the school can show a legitimate educational reason for removing the option to participate in the class.
We just issued a demand letter to the school district that axed its journalism program in apparent backlash to students writing on LGBTQ topics. Officials clearly violated students' rights. We're demanding they immediately take action to address that harm.https://t.co/Kr1c258phk
— ACLU of Nebraska (@ACLUofNE) August 29, 2022
The story has made national headlines.
Students working on a high school newspaper in Nebraska published two opinion columns focused on LGBTQ issues after the principal ordered them to use the names they were given at birth for bylines.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 29, 2022
The school retaliated by shutting the paper down.https://t.co/WC65CHribB
As a newspaper person, many would assume that I would side with the students on the issue. I do not.
Do I think the school should have canceled the program and eliminated the newspaper? No.
But doing so is not censorship.
It would be censorship to keep the newspaper and force them to write certain articles and keep other topics from being published.
Dropping a class from the school does not equate to censorship. The freedom of speech does not mean I can go anywhere I want and say any thing I want.
The school is not required to give the students a platform. It is not required to foot the bill — with taxpayer dollars — to let students say whatever they wish.
Schools in Polk County do not offer every sport. Is that a violation of students’ rights to free express themselves on the tennis court or in the swimming pool? No, and no one would ever try to make that argument.
But that is the same thing.
Some schools offer different classes. Some schools offer more sports.
The question really is how are the students responding to the elimination of the newspaper and journalism program. Have any students tried to print an underground edition filled with whatever they want, paid for by the students?
Did the school administration confiscate every copy and set them on fire? Then that would be censorship. I can get behind that argument.
I do not see student voices are being silenced. I have not seen any reports of students being forced to stay silent. I just see that students do not have a class anymore.
They just can’t have their voices heard in the same manner they have in the past and now people do not like it.
It’s not the same thing as censoring the students.
It was a privilege that the students could publish a newspaper paid for by the school. It was not a requirement.
Did every student that ever wanted to be on the newspaper staff get to be part of the class? If anyone was excluded was that censorship? Was that student’s rights violated?
Was the decision by the school board right? I don’t know.
But it may have been the only choice they had left. If they went to the students with issues and the students continued to disregard what the administration told them what else could they do?
It’s a no win situation.
Lawsuits will probably be filed. Protests will probably take place. The school will either stand their ground or go back on their decision. Time will tell. But we may never hear about it.
Rick Holtz is a reporter of the Polk County News. Find his column, Reporter’s Notebook, from time to time in the newspaper and online at www.polkcountynews.net.
