ILLINOIS ‘ Although editors obtained a security camera videotape of someone throwing away 50 copies of the January edition of The Leader, the student newspaper at Elmhurst College, no one is expected to be charged in the incident.
In January, editor in chief Cherie Getchell identified the person on tape as an assistant football coach. But when the situation went up for review by the administration, adviser Ron Wiginton said no charges could be pressed. Wiginton said because the tape provided a view of only the person’s back, it would be difficult to accuse someone of the crime.
The videotape, which Getchell received from campus security, shows someone putting a stack of the Dec. 4 edition in the trash near the student union. College President Bryant Cureton said the assistant coach was preparing to host a meeting in the same area where the stack had been placed.
An article in that edition included statements by former Elmhurst Sports Information Director Hope Wagner, which were critical of the relationship between the administration and head football coach Paul Krohn.
‘I understand that [he] took it on his own initiative to decide that [the newspaper] wasn’t the thing he wanted out for that meeting,’ Cureton said in January.