After a
year-and-a-half legal battle, students in Kern County,
Calif., will be able to freely "exercise freedom of
speech and of the press" thanks to a court order.
Students at East
High School filed a complaint when a series of articles
about gay student life that students wished to publish in
the second-to-last edition of The
Kernal in 2005 were censored by their
principal.
According to the
American Civil Liberties Union, the students at the
award-winning newspaper were careful to make sure they had
full consent of the students they interviewed as well
as that of their parents. However, administrators
blocked publication, claiming threats might be made
against the LGBT students who were interviewed.
Janet Rangel, who
graduated from the high school in 2005, was interviewed
for the series. "When our principal said the articles on
sexual orientation could not be published in The
Kernal," she told the ACLU, "it made me feel like I
was back in the closet again, hiding." Rangel added,
"I'm glad that because we didn't back down, the
articles will be printed. It's important for schools to be a
place where students learn and feel comfortable."
When the ACLU's
national Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender
Project teamed up with the ACLU's Southern
California chapter and law firm Millbank, Tweed,
Hadley, and McCloy to file the suit, the school agreed
to publish the articles the following fall semester.
Kern County
superior court Judge Sidney P. Chapin was expected
to file a court order Thursday mandating freedom of
speech and press for students and stating that school
officials may turn to censorship only as a last
resort. (The Advocate)