Lawrence High Wins 2025 Courage in Journalism Award

Students reported on and challenged AI monitoring of students

August 29, 2025

Student editors posed before meeting with school administrators in 2024. Pictured are 2024 graduates Morgan Salisbury, Natasha Torkzaban, Jack Tell and Maya Smith.

The Kansas Scholastic Press Association this summer recognized the Lawrence High School journalism staff as winners of the 2025 KSPA Courage in Student Journalism Award.

Reporting by the journalism students raised questions about the district’s use of AI monitoring of all content on students’ Google Suite accounts. The work by 2024 graduates Jack Tell, Natasha Torkzaban, Morgan Salisbury and Maya Smith demonstrated that the district’s new implementation of monitoring by Gaggle had led to blocked emails sent to teachers by students citing concerns about their mental health; those emails would instead be directed to administrators. It also detailed that the system had removed student photography assignments, citing offensive content; the images wouldn’t have violated the school’s dress code.

Their advocacy in the face of challenges led to some changes, including a promise to not scan the accounts of journalism students. Reporting by 2025 graduate Zana Kennedy further demonstrated problems with the implementation.

The Courage in Journalism Judge noted:

The staff of the Lawrence High School Budget has exceeded the criteria of the Courage in Journalism Award. The application, complete with specific information tracking the process of securing freedom of expression for the student publications, is as impressive as the results of their work.

Clearly, the four student leaders cited in the application are critical thinkers and understand the importance of research to ensure fair and full reporting. No knee-jerk reaction here, just thoughtful methodical and persistent reporting.

The staff’s efforts changed policy in their own district, and for that they should be awarded the Courage in Journalism Award, but more importantly, they have laid the groundwork for other Kansas publications staffs to stand up for the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Kansas Publications Act.

The students’ reporting was a finalist for the 2024 Courage in Student Journalism Award from the Student Press Law Center.

Barbara Tholen, a former LHS journalism adviser who mentored students during their coverage of the Gaggle implementation, now serves as the executive director of KSPA. She did not judge entries for KSPA’s Courage in Student Journalism Award.