Family & Education

MCPS journalism students push back against district memo citing concerns about censorship

More than 150 students, teachers sign open letter

By

Ashlyn Campbell

June 12, 2026 4:11 p.m.

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More than 150 Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students have signed an open letter to district leaders citing concerns over censorship after a March memo from the district directed administrators to review student publications before distribution. 

“This is absurd. I mean, it makes absolutely no sense to me,” Richard Montgomery High sophomore Ian Chen, who led the open letter effort, told Bethesda Today on Thursday. “MCPS leadership, they want control over what we publish … they care more about controlling the coverage, what’s being reported about them, than maintaining student press rights.” 

Students from all 25 high schools and the leaders of 20 student newspapers in the district signed the letter, which raises concerns about the freedoms of student journalists in Maryland and was published Friday on the Richard Montgomery High student paper website. Eight teachers and 154 students signed the letter, Chen said.  

“We are writing to put something on the record: Maryland law guarantees significant press freedom protections to student journalists at every single high school,” the letter said. “However, recent guidance circulated via a memo from Dr. Peter Moran has raised serious questions about whether MCPS’ policies are consistent with those legal protections. We are asking MCPS to reaffirm its commitment to the law by withdrawing the memo and returning to the Board-approved policy that had previously been in place.” 

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According to a letter and a photo of the March 19 memo recently provided to Bethesda Today, Moran, the MCPS chief of schools, directed all schools to appoint an administrator who is responsible for reviewing all “student publication and school-related printed material,” prior to publication. The memo provides guidance for content that is prohibited including “embarrassing or private moments,” “ridicule of individuals or groups” and “sarcasm or teasing that could be interpreted as bullying.” 

MCPS didn’t immediately respond to Bethesda Today’s requests for comment on the March 19 memo or the students’ open letter. According to the letter, when the memo was initially released, MCPS journalism teachers reached out repeatedly to MCPS officials but didn’t hear back. 

“For two months now, they’ve been told repeatedly that we would receive a response from Dr. Moran,” the letter said. “We continue to wait.” 

While the memo directs administrators to review publications, the open letter notes that Maryland has passed legislation protecting student press freedoms. According to the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), Maryland is one of 18 states that passed “New Voices” legislation in 2016. According to the legislation, the law makes it so that student journalists are the ones responsible for determining the content of school sponsored media and school systems do not have editorial control over the publication just because its produced as part of a class or financially supported by the school.  

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The legislation prevents “prior restraint—a term that means the censorship of media before it is published—except in narrowly defined circumstances,” according to the letter. The letter notes that there are few exceptions that allow schools to legally restrain student journalism, including if it violates state or federal law.  

The law doesn’t completely prohibit administrators reviewing student publications prior to distribution but “prior review that extends indefinitely becomes prior restraint” and “legal experts and press freedom organizations … advise that review extending beyond 72 hours generally functions as prior restraint in practice,” the letter notes.  

“Even when a policy is not used to censor a specific article, a blanket approval requirement can chill student reporting by making students less willing to pursue controversial or critical stories,” the letter said. “In practice, that kind of system risks functioning as unlawful prior restraint.” 

MCPS also has press regulation policies in place passed by the school board that enumerate protections in Maryland law and allow prior restraint only in the narrow circumstances described by legislation. The policy states that a written rationale must be provided within two school days when prior restraint is necessary.  

Chen said he and his fellow students, advisors and leaders in the student press freedom world like the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), are concerned that the memo doesn’t follow established law or MCPS policy, and could result in the censorship of students.  

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“This list includes entries that are, you know, very, very vague,” Chen said. “Obviously, a student using his opinion column to spread and harass unfounded gossip about someone is very different from a student writing a sharp critique of a speech, but under this memo, both could be considered ridiculous individuals or groups, which is something administrators are instructed to censor.”  

Staff attorney Jonathan Falk from the SPLC told Bethesda Today in a phone interview Thursday that the district seems “poised to take a step back” if they enforce the memo.  

“Not only does Maryland law give students a really great handle on their own editorial decision making process, as far as what student journalists want to publish, but … the board had passed a really great internal policy that not only harmonized with the law but probably went over and above what the law required, and so something like this memo really was again backpedaling,” Falk said. 

The letter notes that the SPLC advised students that the memo raises legal concerns because it appears to impose prior review without “clear standards, timelines, appeal rights, or safeguards required to protect student journalists under Maryland law.” 

Chen and Falk said they hope the letter will persuade MCPS to revoke or not enforce the memo. 

“This memo really was out of left field … I believe that this was more – the release was a little bit more out of carelessness and less out of deliberateness,” Falk said.  “My hope is that the district will acknowledge it, to rescind it, make sure that you know it has no actual effect on educational practice in the district, certainly not disciplinary practice in the district. … We want for them to be able to honor [student] voices.”  

Chen said the timing of the letter, amid budget cuts resulting in the reduction of hundreds of positions and with the rollback of press freedoms, means its even more important that students win their press freedom fight.  

“We’re doing the work of journalists right now, we’re recording and documenting the truth, and we’re putting it out there for public record, so the public can take action and urge, institutions to do the right thing,” Chen said. “I hope other student journalists will see this and see, say, ‘Wow … we have power to create change.”  

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine