What started as a simple policy change has erupted into a full-blown fight over the First Amendment in Alexandria City Public Schools.
Facing backlash from city leaders, the Alexandria School Board officially went back to the drawing board Thursday night (May 8), by announcing that its intended policy changes on the oversight of Alexandria City High School’s student publications have been put on hold. The announcement was made as more than a dozen student journalists held signs and demanded their editorial independence from ACPS administrators. So far, their Voices Unbound plan has the backing of City Council members and Mayor Alyia Gaskins.
“Do the right thing, make the right decision,” James Libresco, the co-editor in chief of the school newspaper, Theogony, told the Board. “It’s not right. In 20 years, when you’re long gone from the Board, promoting free speech for students at a time Democracy is under threat is likely something you’ll be most proud of.”
Last month, Theogony published an editorial asking for help. Student journalists objected that their monthly school publication was going to be censored with new policy changes proposed by the School Board’s Governance Committee, and were going to be considered by the full Board for a vote on May 8.
The story made national news, and on Thursday night, School Board Member Ashley Simpson Baird, the chair of the School Board’s three-member Governance Committee, said that the proposal is going back to her committee for “a while longer.”
Students are proposing a Voices Unbound policy that would ultimately give the school principal the ability to censor a story, but only if it is libelous, obscene, an invasion of privacy, illegal or dangerous.
“Let me assure you, this is no laughing matter,” Max Carpenter, Theogony’s satire editor, told the Board. “In the final analysis, truth will triumph. Why? Because the people are with us.”
Baird wanted to schedule the Board to discuss the matter in a work session, but couldn’t find any available time to hold one.
“I consulted with the (School Board) Chair, and we weren’t able to find time in our schedule before the end of the school year to have that work session,” Baird said. “So, what we decided, and I talked to my committee members about this, is that we’re going to keep it in committee for a while longer and continue to work on it, and we’ll bring it to the full Board when we feel like it’s more ready.”
For more than a month, the committee has been amending the school system’s Policy JP (journalism practices), and other policies, as part of a five-year update. Those initial changes included guidelines that news stories that “may be controversial” would have to be sent to the “Campus Administrator, who is responsible for ensuring the content will not cause substantial disruption of school activities.” That administrator would then go to the principal, who would havethe final say as to whether the content would be published.
The principal would also have to approve the republication of articles to outside news outlets like ALXnow. The draft policy also says 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.”
Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt said that she is removed from this policy change, and that it’s a Board-led process out of her control.
“The policy review process that is currently underway is a Board-driven responsibility and includes established steps for public input, thoughtful discussion, and deliberation before any decision is made,” Kay-Wyatt said.
Reif reiterated that Kay-Wyatt isn’t making the changes, and that the Board supports a “vibrant student led-press” with the “right to report on and criticize the school board and school division.”
“This process is not directed by the superintendent,” Rief said. “This process is not directed by the superintendent. It is led by the school board’s Governance Committee, which has engaged in a months-long process to consider revisions to the Student Publications policy.”
During the Board meeting, student representatives Scott Price II and Nixon Perez Orozco spoke in favor of their fellow students, stood up, and put on black armbands.
“These policy proposals are an attempt to censor the reporting that our student publications have done,” Price said. “I and my fellow students stand in solidarity with Theogony, Labrynth, TMA and the yearbook against censorship.”
Theogony’s efforts have also gained the attention of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. The nonprofit wrote Rief that the school system currently enforces “an unconstitutional practice of censorship against Theogony.”
Below are a number of comments from ACHS student journalists and their supporters from the School Board meeting.
