A surprise March 2026 memo from the MCPS Chief of Schools now requires principals to personally review and have final say over every page of printed material, whether it’s a yearbook photo spread or articles criticizing their own policies. That’s not what Maryland law outlines. It doesn’t align with Board of Education policy, or with common sense.
To the Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education,
Censorship remains a pressing issue for journalists across the nation. Yet, in Montgomery County classrooms like ours, student journalists have historically found sanctuary from unjust suppression that could otherwise be happening just outside their doors. These newsrooms report the local, state and national news unabridged, all with the student body’s interest in mind. Our stories reflect our community’s concerns and the values that shape student journalism — a field in which one can’t purify, soften or moderate without severing the truth.
On March 19, however, MCPS Chief of Schools Dr. Peter Moran issued a surprise memorandum requiring middle and high school principals to exercise a new power: review over all printed materials, including content about themselves. Worse, the policy specifically asks administrators to censor the kinds of realistic, fact-based content required to keep communities informed.
Principals or another administrator are now responsible for vetting sources according to the memo, including anonymous whistleblowers, by personally checking “language that implies wrongdoing without verification.” Additionally, regardless of news value or truthfulness, content now subject to censorship includes “profanity or suggestive reference,” “ridicule” like satire, and anything that reports “embarrassing” moments — all of which are subjective depending on who is reading and who the subject is, particularly if it’s one of the school’s principals.
Dr. Moran’s blanket policy addressing all printed items is a gross overstep that imperils decades of tradition and student press rights. MCPS writers have successfully challenged the status quo over and over again, courageously pitching sensitive stories that investigate controversial issues and, inevitably, offend. Dr. Moran’s policy augments a concerning trend: shying away from contentious issues to suppress potential conflict. When school officials have the final say in our coverage under the banner of safety, they can easily dilute the reporting’s message and limit any potential positive impact.
From stories detailing drug abuse to racism and sexual assault within our own halls, our school newspaper The Black & White has historically informed thousands of community members of the harsh realities that entrench Whitman High School. Those stories rely on students brave enough to identify themselves to editors and advisers, but who are not always in positions to safely identify themselves to administrators. They also rely on the bravery of reporters to turn moments that could embarrass those in power into reporting and real change.
In 2022, The Black & White released a story, later picked up by the Washingtonian and Fox 5 D.C., detailing sexual misconduct and harassment at Whitman’s Vike-a-Thon event — a 12-hour rave-style dance revealed to include excessive underage drinking, drug use and toxic power dynamics between underclassmen and upperclassmen. Our school’s administration canceled the event following the exposé’s release, expressing concern that mirrored ours. The community conversation that followed was an important one.
Conventionally, student newspapers are written for the students, by the students. If a student were to pitch a Vike-a-Thon adjacent story today under Moran’s declaration, administrators would likely have no choice but to follow the memorandum and stop the article’s publication, citing not untruthfulness, but any number of subjective notes. The original article embarrassed staff members. It included more than just suggestive references; it outlined a kind of assault. Even as our writer did reveal herself proudly, the article relied on our own documentation of anonymous sources who weren’t in positions to out themselves to administrators. Dr. Moran’s policy institutes a dangerous precedent: student news edited, tweaked and filtered by adults in positions of authority is alarmingly ineffective, and it may cease to be news at all.
This concern isn’t isolated to Whitman. Across the county, student publications are actively forming coalitions with other papers calling for the memo’s reversal. National student press initiatives agree that administrators’ universal prior review is unjust. The very textbook the memo cites, Scholastic Journalism (12th Edition), teaches that students themselves should be the ones mainly responsible for upholding journalistic standards, not administrators.
Moreover, so does Maryland law. Dr. Moran’s memorandum supersedes years of legal precedent and careful, Board-negotiated policy. In April 2016, Governor Larry Hogan signed the New Voices Maryland Act, which protects student journalists’ right to free speech. Maryland law prohibits prior restraint of school-sponsored media except for narrow categories, including libel or slander, unwarranted invasion of privacy, violation of federal or state law, or incitement creating a clear and present danger of unlawful action, violation of board policy or material and substantial disruption. Importantly, beyond any gray, it states that the only body permitted to implement policy of this kind is each district’s Board of Education, not its Chief of Schools.
This isn’t the first time the meaning behind the term “student-run” has been tested within our publication. In 1970, eight students here at The Black & White walked out of the newsroom, protesting their adviser’s censorship of a sensitive article. The students formed their own publication, The Inquirer, a brief but notable stint in Whitman history that dissented from censorship. Editors at the Inquirer, under the protection of Tinker v. Des Moines, were allowed to distribute their newspaper on premises. Today, the memo risks subjecting even student journalism to administrator approval before publication. Nearly 60 years ago, our staff took extreme measures to evade censorship by an adult they trusted to guide them. Now, our staff and others grapple with the oversight of the highest position of authority at our schools.
Under Dr. Moran’s overreach, stories demanding accountability may cease to reach students, taming our content here from distinctly Black & White to a murky shade of gray. No longer will MCPS publications unwaveringly serve their greater communities by default.
Our teachers remind us to consider different perspectives and broaden our viewpoints. The memo disregards the student press rights MCPS should be protecting.
The argument that principals won’t really use this power much, if at all, misses the point that behind a closed door, whether next week or next decade, one now may and might. The mere threat changes what students are willing to pitch to cover — it’s “self-censorship,” otherwise known as the “chilling effect.” As we observe professional journalists facing that sudden, intense and often unjust scrutiny in our own backyard, Washington, D.C., we’ve come to realize that MCPS’s attempted jurisdiction over student news resembles that of the larger nation. Publications across the country are caving under pressure from higher-ups; it’s vital now more than ever that student journalism remains a powerful force for honest reporting. Dr. Moran, withdraw the memo, and members of the Board of Education, exercise your state-appointed duty and protect the right to report. Reinstate the pre-existing Board-negotiated policy that follows state law.
We’re not asking to freely publish explicit or untruthful content. We remain bound by the same laws that govern all media nationwide. We’re simply asking that the county put our rights before timid reservations against impactful student journalism.
Sincerely,
The Black & White Editorial Board and Staff
Seva Gandhi
Online Editor-in-Chief
Annabel Taylor
Print Editor-in-Chief
Kaitlyn Garrett
Print Managing Editor
Anna Mershon
Print Managing Editor
Juliet Turatti
Online Managing Editor
Eden Gilmore
Online Managing Editor
John Magruder
Online Managing Editor
