After a firestorm of criticism from city leaders and student journalists over proposed oversight changes to Alexandria City High School’s student newspaper, Theogony, this morning (May 2), the Alexandria School Board’s Governance Committee returned to the drawing board.
From reporting on a transportation controversy to investigations into the School Board, transgender policies, or even lampooning metal detectors in cartoons, Theogony student journalists take their roles seriously. Now, with City Council members warning of potential “censorship” and “authoritarian” behavior from the school system, student journalists are alleging a concerted effort from the administration of Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt to suppress touchy or controversial stories from appearing in the monthly publication.
“Today’s meeting shows some movement in the right direction, but it remains clear that the work is far from over,” James Libresco, the co-editor in chief of Theogony, told ALXnow. “Policies that enable censorship, whether through explicit rules or vague language, are not acceptable for a school district that claims to support student voice and equity, or any school district for that matter.”
Kay-Wyatt did not respond for a comment for this story.
School Board Members Ashley Simpson Baird, Tim Beaty and Abdulahi Abdalla serve on the committee and couldn’t reach consensus on staff changes to create a structure where stories could be stopped from publication by the editor, the school’s executive principal. The trio agreed to pursue the issue in a work session in June, which postpones the Board’s scheduled May 8 vote on the matter.
“I want to acknowledge that, especially where we are with the budget and redistricting, I don’t know if this is a work session that will happen before June,” Baird said. “I know that we were really hoping to get this wrapped up by the end of the school year, but I know a work session will take some time and there’s a lot on our calendar right now.”
Abdalla said that the school principal should not have the final say on stories.
“I don’t think leaving it up to the principal as the final say is beneficial for the process of them learning to be journalists,” Abdalla said. “I would love the principal to be involved in the process, but to what level, I don’t think the principal should have any say in editorial changes.”
Baird said that the school system needs to facilitate a good educational experience for students.
“They are learning how to be writers, how to be journalists, how to be citizens in the world,” Baird said. “My thinking is that the role of adults in supporting students’ education is to be there to help them think more critically, to help them identify where there might be challenges, to help them think about the implications of their writing.”
Beaty, however, said that the executive principal should have the final say.
“There will be unusual situations, be points in time where a particular topic, a particular article, a particular photograph, something is on the borderline about whether or not it creates defamation or it creates some other kind of violation of the policies,” Beaty said. “Somebody’s got to decide there, and so I think designating the principal as that person is about right in my book.”
The ACPS proposal
In a draft proposal released three weeks ago, news stories that “may be controversial” would have to be submitted by students to the “Campus Administrator who is responsible for ensuring the content will not cause substantial disruption of school activities.” The principal would also have to approve the republication of articles to outside news outlets like ALXnow.
The current proposal also removed a guideline that students should be instructed to follow the “Code of Ethics of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and help students and understand and follow it,” because the organization no longer exists. That sentence was replaced with, “School publications faculty co-editors shall instruct students in the recognized practices and ethical considerations of journalism.”
The amended policy also states that the “Superintendent may establish additional editorial levels between the faculty sponsor and the principal as needed to ensure the process is efficient and effective.”
The ACPS policy on student publications has been in place since 1994 and hasn’t been updated since 2014. This policy is among several that are up for review by the school system. The established policy lays out a structure where the School Board is the publisher of all student-created content, the editor is the school principal, the staff advisor is the equivalent of a co-editor, and students are assistant editors and reporters.
As it stands, Theogony students are led by two student co-editors and advised by a teacher. They also say that until now, the school principal has largely left the publication up to the discretion of the students and their academic advisor.
“Students, the reporters themselves, determine the stories,” Libresco said. “We have a budget meeting at the beginning of each cycle where students pitch ideas, and then our student reporters fill out a pitch form. It’s reviewed by the co-editors in chief, and then we sign it and it goes to our advisor, who looks it over. If she has any concerns, she lets us know.”
Libresco continued, “That being said, our advisor does not decide the content we can cover or we cannot cover. She helps us navigate ethical questions, looks for grammar and punctuation, and things like that. She’s not saying, ‘Yes, I approve you to interview this person, but not this person,’ and ‘Yes, I approve you to write about this story, but not about that story.’ Those are all student decisions.”
School Board Chair Michelle Rief says that the proposed changes are intended to protect students and the school division.
“The intention behind the proposed revision to Policy JP (journalism practices) is to ensure that student publications are supported with adult oversight that promotes accuracy, ethical journalism, and adherence to laws and policies that govern our school division regarding student privacy,” Rief said in a statement. “This oversight is not meant to silence student voices, but to help protect the rights of all students.”
“Crosses into censorship”
City Council Member Abdel Elnoubi was on the School Board until his recent election last fall, and said that the new policy “crosses into censorship.”
Elnoubi said that reasonable limits on students should be established, but he was compelled to speak up because the “free speech of students is under attack” during a time “when democracy and free speech are under threat nationally.”
“I grew up under an authoritarian regime (in Egypt) that used vague, subjective terms like ‘controversial’ and ‘disruption’ to silence dissent,” Elnoubi said in a statement. “I recognize these red flags when I see them.”
A new draft proposal published on Thursday dropped the word “controversial” and replaced it with “material that the staff co-editor believes may be in violation of the ACPS Journalistic Principles or ACPS policy or regulation.”
City Council Member John Taylor Chapman said that the language change seems unnecessary.
“I think the expansion of their policy doesn’t seem warranted,” Chapman said. “From my perspective, students haven’t violated any ACPS policies. I do think it is interesting that ACS looked at this policy when they’ve had a number of articles in Theogony about some of the decisions that have been made. I don’t get the sense that school board members are pushing this issue. I really want to understand why this is coming up as something that’s on their docket. It’d be great to see this policy come from the School Board, versus a staff that has a bias on (what) they want to see printed and discussed in the community about ACPS.”
The Supreme Court
City Council Member R. Kirk McPike told ALXnow that he’s ready to fight for the rights of ACHS student journalists. McPike said he was a student journalist in high school and was directly impacted by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-3 ruling in 1988, which allowed school districts to censor all school publications.
“When I was a high school journalist, our principal attempted to prevent the release of an issue of our newspaper because a parent complained about a picture of their son smoking,” McPike said. “It was part of an article about the challenges the school was having in preventing smoking by students. So I take the impacts of prior review policies on the ability of student journalists to be real journalists very seriously.”
McPike said that Theogony’s reporting has made a positive impact.
“School systems can adopt policies that give greater protection to student journalists,” he said. “The ACPS School Board Members I have spoken to about the proposed policy changes recognize and value the great work of the journalists at Theogony. They want to see these students thrive and improve their skills. I hope they will respond to the concerns of the students who produce Theogony and adopt regulations that further empower these young journalists.”
Students feel pressured
Libresco said he and his student reporters have felt pressured by ACPS central office staff to amend headlines and stories.
“It’s straight from the playbook of authoritarian governments and regimes,” Libresco said. “This is not something that should be happening in Alexandria, where we claim to have an equity focus and a student empowerment focus that is not reflected at all in this policy.”
Libresco also launched an online petition that’s garnered nearly 700 signatures.
“All we’re asking for is the freedom to tell the truth of what’s going on,” he said. “They’re not saying our articles haven’t gone through a proper editing process; they’re saying that they don’t like what we’re writing about, and that’s a huge difference.”
Libresco said that he and his student reporters were asked to alter their content several times since the end of the last school year. In two recorded meetings held in May and June last year, ACPS communications staff requested a more collaborative relationship with Theogony staff. The newspaper’s students were asked to submit requests to interview any ACPS staff with the communications department, and students who participated in those meetings were concerned that the new proposed measures were punitive.
In those meetings, Julia Burgos, the ACPS chief of school and community relations, and her staff asked for closer collaboration with Theogony to ensure that staff being interviewed were providing accurate information.
“Since that time, we have remained focused on building a collaborative and respectful relationship with the Theogony team,” Burgos told ALXnow. “At no point have we requested to review, edit or approve any of their articles. Our goal has always been to support student voices and uphold their editorial independence.”
Libresco says that the Central Office is proposing the changes.
“I have a great relationship with our current principal, and he has been very supportive of Theogony and all its efforts,” he said. “I want to make clear that this policy change and this standard operating procedure, this was directly from Central Office leadership, including the superintendent. That was not from our school administration at all. Our school is very supportive.”
Theogony reporter Isabelle Shultz said that the publication strives to be accurate.
“It should be of note that we are very happy to change anything that might be non-factual,” Shultz said. “Every time we ask the superintendent to comment, that is her chance to put her input in on our articles, and that is where any input belongs — in our articles. We are fully committed to making sure that we tell the full story.”
Mayor backs student plan
Libresco and his staff of ACHS students have an alternative proposal guaranteeing students’ First Amendment protections. Their Voices Unbound policy is also backed by Mayor Alyia Gaskins, and it largely prevents administrators from interfering with articles.
“Through Theogony, we have an opportunity to build the next generation of journalists and civic leaders,” Gaskins said. “We have seen how their articles have pushed our community to ask better questions and critically examine our decisions. The proposed changes put leaders in a position of editing critical and necessary coverage. I hope the School Board will adopt the Voices Unbound framework, which was designed to elevate student voice and thoughtful expression while respecting the responsibilities of school leadership.”
A majority of the Board members need to support the policy. Libresco still plans to speak at the May 8 Board meeting.
“We urge the school board to listen to the community, to legal experts and to the students most directly affected,” he said. “Adopt the entire Voices Unbound framework. Guarantee full First Amendment protections for your students.”
