The Archer School for Girls was recognized for the First Amendment Press Freedom Award (FAPFA) by the Journalism Education Association (JEA) for the 10th consecutive year Thursday, Feb. 27. The FAPFA is awarded to public and private schools who have shown that the First Amendment rights of its students are consistently upheld, protected and supported. The award has existed since 2000, and it focuses on student-run publications who are able to effectively use their First Amendment rights without experiencing prior review or restraint.
The Oracle and Hestia’s Flame faculty adviser Kristin Taylor served on the JEA board of directors as the scholastic press rights director from 2020 to 2024. Taylor said that the FAPFA is a good tool to help school administrations have conversations with student editors and advisers about their current press freedom situation. While she was not involved in judging Archer, she was formerly part of the judging committee that helped decide which schools would be receiving the award. Taylor said that in her last year as the scholastic press rights director, she was able to see a visible increase in schools that applied to receive the award.
“One of my real missions was to increase the number of schools that were applying,” Taylor said. “I actually think there are a lot more schools that do honor their students press freedom than schools that apply to get the recognition.”
Taylor said, while she appreciates awards for specific journalistic works, she would ultimately be happy to only win the First Amendment Press Freedom Award because it shows that Archer students are able to engage in a free press.
“This award is the underpinning of the whole thing for me,” Taylor said. “Because to me, the purpose of student journalism is to empower students to tell stories that need to be told, and if they are in an environment where they’re being censored or being told that they’re not allowed to report on certain things, it really interferes with the ability of the students to surface important issues in our community, to tell stories that need to be told and to take risks.”
Senior Emma Winkler is the co-editor-in-chief of Hestia’s Flame, Archer’s yearbook. She went through the FAPFA submission process with her fellow co-editor-in-chief, Parker Keston. The process evaluates the school as a whole, rather than individual programs or publications within that school. Winkler said that, in their submission, she and Keston acknowledged the autonomy that Archer gives its publications students.
“Specifically in yearbook, our role —especially since we’re not reporting on breaking news or active things — is reporting on the past, and our goal is to report the full story of the year.” Winkler said. “In many schools, we wouldn’t be able to publish some of the content that we do.”
Taylor said that it is important to her that she is at a school that aims to empower student voices, especially those of girls.
“It means that the school is living its mission and that [the students] are learning what it means to be democratic citizens,” Taylor said.
Intro publications students on Hestia’s Flame and the Oracle engage in a series of Checkology lessons, an online program that guides students through different topic such as First Amendment rights and journalists acting as democracy’s watchdogs. Winkler said that Archer follows the Tinker Standard, which means that as a long as Archer’s student journalism is not causing substantial harm or disruption, student journalists are able to publish freely.
“A lot of the conversations we have, and we train new staffers to have, are more about how or should we publish something, not can we publish something.” Winkler said.
Winkler said that having press freedom as an independent school emphasizes the trust between Archer’s publications and it’s administration. Head of School Elizabeth English wrote over email that she has always been passionate about supporting a free student press.
“I do know that it can only work with an outstanding journalism program and journalism teacher like Ms. Taylor, and I could not be more proud of this distinction and of the Oracle,” English wrote.
Taylor said the hope is that the administration sees the value of having a free press supported by the First Amendment.
“The administration is willing to accept that students are going to make mistakes and that they’re going to learn more from being ethical journalists than they would from being told what they can and can’t publish,” Taylor said. “At our school in particular, we have a very supportive administration. They really see the value in in this. They see the alignment between press freedom and Archer’s mission. So I think it engenders respect.”
