Fight For Student Press Freedom Earns Alexandria Student Journalists Courage Award

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Investigative reporting combined with a fight against student journalist censorship earned Alexandria City High School's Theogony student journalists a new accolade.

The Student Press Law Center gave Alexandria City High School student journalists the 2025 Courage in Student Journalism Award, a national award "for students who have demonstrated exceptional determination and support for student press freedom."

Award winners were announced at the Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Nashville, Tennessee in mid-November. Alexandria City High School's Theogony student newspaper beat out finalists from San Diego, California, and San Jose, California for the courage award.

"We are deeply honored to be recognized in our fight for editorial independence," former co-editor-in-chief James Libresco and current co-editor-in-chief Rozalia Finkelstein said in a statement. "But the real recognition should go to the hundreds of student journalists around the world who face similar challenges. To those experiencing censorship, no matter how small you think it may be, let this be a call. Stand up and own your space."

The organization said Theogony staff had been publishing investigative pieces about their school district, namely on transportation delays that led to changes and the removal of beloved administrators.

Alexandria City Public Schools had then proposed a policy calling for an administrator to review "material that may be controversial" and principal approval for student articles to be published in non-ACPS publications. Theogony has called for the School Board to adopt the publication's recommended Voiced Unbound Policy, which it worked with the Student Press Law Center on. The Alexandria City School Board tabled the policy affecting ACPS student publications and are working on the proposal in committee.

The student newspaper's content is written, edited, and produced by student journalists with guidance from Staff Adviser Kamilah Lawson. The 2024-2025 staff recognized by the Student Press Law Center were Libresco, Finkelstein, Casey Donahue, Julia Gwin, Pablo Cruz-Rivera, Max Carpenter, Nadja Duss, Maxwell Jones-Lachance, Isabel Shultz, Noah Sternberg, Leo Maucieri, Liam Brown, Imani Sanders, Christian Orrell, Arafat Somith and Michael Sweeney.

Finkelstein and Gwin are leading staff in the current school year and continue to advocate for the student media policy. The school board's governance committee introduced a new proposed policy in November that includes many of the student's proposals.

"These student journalists showed extraordinary courage and persistence by standing up to censorship from their school district," said Gary Green, executive director of the Student Press Law Center. "Their commitment to exposing the truth, standing up to powerful forces and rallying for press freedom is exactly what SPLC seeks to empower and support among student journalists."

Theogony and its current and former staff have recently won other awards from the Virginia High School League and School Newspapers Online.