District to revive student newspaper axed after LGBTQ issue

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska public school district that shuttered a student newspaper following an LGBTQ-focused edition has agreed to bring it back next year in digital form, according to the teacher who advised the publication.

That's not good enough, according to a civil rights organization that has said it could take legal action over the closing earlier this year of The Saga, the newspaper at Northwest High School in Grand Island's Northwest Public Schools.

Kirsten Gilliland, adviser and teacher for the school's newspaper program, told the Grand Island Independent last week that The Saga will return to the school's class offerings in the spring semester, but in a digital format and without her at the helm.

The role of advising the newspaper and teaching journalism in the school “has been offered to another teacher,” she said.

Saga newspaper staff were informed May 19 of the newspaper’s elimination, three days after it had printed its June edition, which included an article titled, “Pride and prejudice: LGBTQIA+,” on the origins of Pride Month and the history of homophobia. It also included an editorial opposing a Florida law that bans some lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity and dubbed by critics as “Don’t Say Gay.”

The elimination of the 54-year-old Saga newspaper also came a month after its staff was reprimanded for publishing students’ pronouns and names. District officials told students they could use only names assigned at birth going forward.

An email May 22 email from a school employee canceling the paper’s printing services said it was “because the school board and superintendent are unhappy with the last issue’s editorial content.” Some school board members publicly stated their objection to the Saga’s LGBTQ content.

The Nebraska...