Viking Saga censorship incident

In response, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit asserting that transgender staff member Marcus Pennell's First Amendment right to free speech had been violated.

[4] In April 2022, Northwest Public Schools issued a reprimand to the Viking Saga because transgender staff were using their preferred pronouns and chosen names in article bylines.

[8] According to Marcus Pennell, a transgender columnist for the Viking Saga who graduated in 2022, the students were coerced into obeying by being told that their faculty advisor would suffer the consequences if they did not comply.

[4] Dan Leiser, the president of the Northwest Public Schools Board of Education, remarked in reference to the controversial stories that "most people were upset they were written".

[4] On August 31, Edwards said that news reports on the incident by the media were "both correct and incorrect", adding that publication of the Viking Saga was only paused and that other student journalism activities such as the yearbook were continuing.

And so while the chancellor is giving a full throated support and that's amazing, there is currently no law, there is no policyIn October 2022, Ava Tse, news editor of the Latin School of Chicago's Forum argued that the Viking Saga's shutdown "probably does not violate the students' First Amendment rights".

[14] In November 2022, The Grand Island Independent reported that – according to Northwest teacher Kirsten Gilliland – the school administration had agreed to let the paper continue publication, in an on-line format and under the supervision of a different faculty member.

[15] In February 2023, The Independent reported that English teacher Alex Hull had taken over teaching the journalism class and was the new adviser to the paper, but the Viking Saga had not yet resumed publication.

SPLC executive director Gary Green added that "the ruling was a clear signal to schools not to overstep the First Amendment" and that "officials should heed the judge's warning to avoid censoring student media for speech they simply disagree with".

[20] Scott Shackford of Reason magazine took exception to the school administration's closure of the Viking Saga, observing that the decision was based not on the quality of the writing but rather on the opinions expressed by the publication.

[4] The Grand Island Independent reported that print media has a constitutional right to determine its editorial content, citing the 1974 case Miami Herald Publishing Co. v.