Youth and Schools

Marcus Pennell, then a senior at Northwest Public High School, was a student reporter for the school’s newspaper called the Viking Saga. In the paper’s June 2022 issue, Pennell wrote an editorial on the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, or what’s been popularly called the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, discussing the history of LGBTQ+ rights and the harm of erasure. Days after publication, the school shuttered the newspaper and terminated its newspaper class. We launched a lawsuit against Grand Island Northwest Public Schools on behalf of the Nebraska High School Press Association and student journalist Marcus Pennell for claims that school officials shut down the school newspaper for publishing articles on LGBTQ+ topics. Our lawsuit argued that school officials’ decision to shutter the newspaper violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment free speech rights on three counts: their right to be free of viewpoint discrimination, their right to be free of retaliation and their right to receive information. The case was unfortunately dismissed because Pennell was no longer a current student, but the judge noted “school administrators would be wise to remember that policies and decisions to restrict speech in student newspapers [...] may run afoul of the First Amendment if they reflect ‘an effort to suppress expression merely because public officials oppose a speaker’s view.’”