The school board voted against a motion to review the rights of student journalists at a Dec. 5, 2024 board meeting . Now, Fairfax County Public Schools is starting to feel the effects.

When member-at-large Ryan McElveen moved “that the school board direct the governance committee to ensure that all FCPS policies and regulations, including but not limited to the [Students’ Rights and Responsibilities], uphold the rights of student journalists to make good decisions regarding content without prior review or approval,” nine of the 12 board members voted against it.

The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) defines prior review as a practice where an administrator demands to read or watch a student journalist’s reporting before it is published. While the SPLC differentiates between prior review and restraint, where an administrator blocks a piece from publishing after viewing it, it cautions that there is a slippery slope from prior review into censorship. Additionally, all journalism classes have advisers who ensure responsible student journalism. The nine board members cited differing reasons for their votes against McElveen’s motion, most of which stemmed from a misunderstanding of the legal definition of prior review.

The Journalism Education Association recognizes high schools whose journalism programs actively honor the First Amendment with the First Amendment Press Freedom Award ( FAPFA ). To win the award, a school must not practice administrative prior review and its student publications should take advantage of this by reporting on sensitive or controversial topics. Before Feb. 27, Chantilly High School had won the FAPFA 10 years in a row, McLean eight years in a row and West Springfield was on its second consecutive FAPFA win. But on November 14, 2024, FCPS released the Guidance for Student Publications (GSP), outlining how school administrators could conduct prior reviews.

In a Feb. 27 email to Chantilly and McLean High School applicants, the FAPFA committee explained that, despite the fact that CHS follows the Tinker standards of student expression, the county’s GSP makes all of its high schools ineligible for the award. The committee has created a commendation for schools like those in FCPS that do not practice prior review but are in school districts where it is possible.

“A lot of us at The Highlander are a little vexed at the overall outcome,” said McLean senior Aaron Stark, editor-in-chief of The Highlander, McLean’s student newspaper. “We can’t assign the blame to FAPFA for what happened here; this was a fallout from FCPS. Us losing FAPFA represents that there really is a true attack on student journalism; it signifies the loss that FCPS has taken.”

After McElveen was forwarded the FAPFA committee’s email, he sent it to Superintendent Michelle Reid, the other 11 members of the school board, and several high-level staff members. In the email, which has a subject line that reads “FCPS Failure of First Amendment Press Freedom Embarrassment,” McElveen requested the county issue a formal apology to past FAPFA winners and all FCPS students.

“The Board had an opportunity to take action on this last December and neglected to do so,” McElveen said in the Feb. 27 email. “I hope that staff, if not the Board, will have the fortitude to take action on this as soon as possible. This is an embarrassment for our district, and our students deserve better.”

This story first ran in The Purple Tide, Chantilly High School’s student newspaper and is reprinted with permission.