Graphic by Rozalia Finkelstein and Isabel Shultz for Theogony.
This Friday, the Alexandria School Board has a chance to take a significant step forward on our journey towards free student expression. In this moment of national challenge, we urge them to do so.
This conversation began last year, when the School Board’s proposal of “Policy JP,” included new provisions that a broad range of scholastic journalism voices nationwide characterized as censorship. After an outpouring of community outrage and national media attention, the School Board delayed all decisions regarding the policy until the 2025-26 school year.
That brings us to Friday’s School Board Governance Committee meeting, and a meaningfully revised version of Policy JP set to be discussed there. Compared to the proposed policy last year, this draft represents tremendous progress towards restoring student journalists’ First Amendment rights.
We applaud the School Board for listening to the high degree of unity between the community, faculty and our student body and for proposing a student journalism policy that upholds and defends the Constitution. This progress demonstrates the benefits of a constructive dialogue between stakeholder groups who don’t necessarily agree.
Among the most important provisions, the new draft acknowledges the students as editors, a position we and our predecessors have practiced for more than a decade. This cements perhaps the most fundamental principle of any student newspaper — by the students, for the students. And, especially noteworthy, it provides critical protections for staff advisors.
While the new policy is a massive step in the right direction, we continue to advocate for several vital protections, and we look forward to working with the School Board and administration to pursue them once these fundamental, transformative changes have been adopted.
Specifically, Theogony should be established as a public forum, a status under which we have operated as for at least 16 years. The current draft includes the School Board as the publisher of Theogony, but we believe that a public forum as established by the Hazelwood School District V. Kuhlmier ruling more accurately characterizes this publication’s current and historic role in the community. Under this arrangement, the school administration does not have the authority to control or limit content, meaning the School Board should not have the same sovereignty as a publisher. This ensures editorial independence from one of our most important topics of coverage – a clear benefit for all Alexandrians with a stake in public education, as well as the wider community.
In addition, the current version of the policy leaves vague the responsibilities of the School Board and Superintendent. We believe that in order to avoid dangers of subjective interpretation, their powers should be clearly defined.
Twenty minutes away from Theogony’s newsroom, the Trump Administration seeks to employ unjust censorship policies nationally. These proposed changes would not only be a destruction of democratic rights, but also instrumental in the narrative of student publications on a national level. Theogony has been — and will remain — a pillar of advocacy for First Amendment rights. A new policy is only the beginning.
We urge the School Board to continue developing Policy JP in the right direction, to move the current version out of committee on Friday, and to codify it through a vote by the entire School Board.
Student journalism is the foundation of accountability. Let’s keep it that way.
The Editorial Board is comprised of Theogony’s editing team: Rozalia Finkelstein and Julia Gwin, co-editors in chief; Max Carpenter, opinion editor; Isabel Shultz, news editor; Nadja Duss features editor; Nadja Duss, entertainment editor; Leo Maucieri, tracking and circulation manager.