Editor’s Note: The students in this article requested that only their first names be used and that their school not be identified out of concern they would be censored by their schools.
Student Press Freedom Day takes place on Thursday, Feb. 26, and highlights #ResilienceinAction in times of censorship and intimidation. In 2025, The Oracle received the First Amendment Press Freedom Award for the 11th consecutive year, which means Archer has shown that students’ First Amendment rights are consistently upheld. Although freedom of speech is a First Amendment right, this does not apply to private schools. Student journalists at private schools are vulnerable to censorship if their articles do not reflect positively on the school or its administration.
Fred is a student journalist at a private school in Los Angeles. He said that usually, when there are restrictions on what students can publish and write, the article will discuss hate speech and its harm to students or faculty, rather than negativity towards the school.
“I’ve noticed it’s much more based on hate speech and talking poorly and less about controversial issues — they’re completely okay with that,” Fred said. “It becomes an issue when you’re talking negatively about someone else — that’s when there’s kind of a gray area.”
Fred said last year, a student tried to cover the Pacific Palisades Fires, and the administration said the article should not be published too quickly after the fires, arguing that it would be insensitive. Although there wasn’t much the students could do, their adviser advocated for them.
“It is supposed to be complete freedom of the press, freedom of speech, but that’s not to say they won’t get mad at our advisers for allowing stuff to go through,” Fred said. “But our advisor stood up for us and said, ‘News is news, this matters, and so this is why we should be able to do this.’ In the end, it stayed published.”
Daniel is a student journalist who helped to create and establish a newspaper for his school. He said that because his school did not previously have a student newspaper, the administration had to establish a set of guidelines for the publication.
“My school doesn’t have a defined set of policies because they kind of have to make special rules just for me and my friends,” Daniel said. “I thought it was kind of crazy that [my school] didn’t have a newspaper, … and because we started from scratch, it was really hard.”
It is important to consider relevancy when covering someone or something negative, Fred said, especially when covering opinions that could potentially be harmful.
“It depends, if it’s a negative viewpoint on the administration or a teacher … if it’s not relevant whatsoever [or] not really a news thing — it’s more just hating to hate — that’s where our adviser would shut it down,” Fred said. “But I believe if it’s covering something really relevant and it just happens to have a negative opinion on it … when you’re being relevant and being a real journalist, that’s when it’s allowed.”
Fred said although there have been some pushback, the administration is lenient about supporting their student journalists through press freedoms — it’s one of his favorite parts about the program.
“I think overall it’s honestly pretty good about letting reporters report and journalists be journalists,” Fred said. “That’s what makes it such a great program at my school.”
Daniel said he wanted to publish an article about a meeting the school conducted about the Oct. 7th attacks carried out by terrorist group Hamas. Daniel said students had varying reactions to the meeting, how the school addressed it, and he said the school administration was against him covering this topic. After many rounds of feedback and edits from administration, Daniel was able to publish the article by March 2024.
“It was a big controversy, and a lot of people were arguing about it, so I thought this [was] a great opportunity to write about this because people already have strong opinions, I might as well write them down,” Daniel said. “It’s just the information about what’s happening on campus, and I tried to get the article approved. I worked really hard to make sure it was objective, and they completely shut down the topic. They didn’t want me to write about Israel and Palestine … I wasn’t even talking about the conflict itself.”
Emily Paschall (’26) is the co-editor-in-chief of The Oracle. Paschall said press freedom is important because it allows student reporters to practice real journalism within their community.
“They can shed light on every issue that’s pressing their students, their local communities or nationwide in a way that isn’t controlled … by their school’s administration,” Paschall said. “So it’s just the raw story, unfiltered and they can tell the stories of their school without having to align with what the school wants.”
Paschall explained that with press freedom, journalists don’t face prior review or prior restraint. Prior review is when a person of authority reads or reviews content before a piece is published. Prior restraint is when someone of authority prohibits speech or other expression.
“Press freedom … allows students to be able to tell the real stories within their community and therefore not have to promote the school in any way, or act as a tool for the school,” Paschall said. “Students can act independently with press freedom, and that’s so important today.”
Daniel said he thinks it would’ve been more helpful to inform the students about the meeting held about Hamas’ attacks and give people a platform to share their opinions. He believes this is most productive and meaningful done through an article.
“People were arguing about it, and it wasn’t super civil. … It wasn’t the best form of communication,” Daniel said. “I think writing an article is much better because you get to synthesize all of the different people’s opinions and include what everybody thinks and do it in a way where you’re not promoting one side but just getting the full story.”
Press freedom is essential to teach students how to operate in a real newsroom, Paschall said. It’s important for student journalists to make decisions as a staff, without relying on what the school board or administration wants.
“Press freedom teaches the younger generation of journalists to function in a real newsroom where you have to collaborate,” Paschall said. “You can’t just rely on what the larger company or school or larger power wants you to do.”
Paschall said if a staff member couldn’t publish something because the administration restricted it, she would feel discouraged. She said if Archer didn’t have press freedom, it would tell the student reporters that the administration doesn’t fully trust or support the mission of the student journalists.
“I can’t even imagine if one of our staff members put in all the time and effort to find expert sources and do so much research to make such a thoughtful story about a real pressing issue within our community,” Paschall said. “And then not being able to publish it just because the school doesn’t want that story to be told.”
Paschall said she is concerned with the lack of trust schools with no press freedom seem to have in their students to conduct ethical and responsible journalism.
“Change in a community can only happen when the people who are telling the stories about what needs to be changed are empowered and supported, not criticized or restrained,” Paschall said. “Not having press freedom would impair my community’s ability to change, grow and learn from the stories and people within it.”
