Student journalists sue school district - May 20, 2005

CNN.com - Student journalists sue school district - May 20, 2005: "LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Student journalists sued their Bakersfield high school district Thursday in an effort to keep the school's principal from censoring student newspaper articles on homosexuality.

The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, requests an emergency order to allow the paper to publish the stories in The Kernal's year-end May 27 issue.

'The Kernal staff, along with the gay students we interviewed, we have lost our voices,' said the paper's editor in chief, Joel Paramo, a plaintiff in the case filed in Kern County court.

East Bakersfield High School Principal John Gibson said he blocked publication because he is worried about violence on campus.

'It's not about gay and lesbians. It's about student safety,' he said.

Paramo, however, said the principal's decision 'regrettably sends the unmistakable message that school officials would rather students keep closeted about their sexual orientation.'"