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Editor salvages stolen newspapers, tries to redistribute on campus

CALIFORNIA — A student editor in California attempted to redistribute her student newspaper after finding nearly 2,000 stolen copies in a dumpster near campus.

Jane Pojawa, editor in chief of El Vaquero, said she suspects administrators at Glendale Community College confiscated and trashed the June issue because of an article about recent student suicides on campus. College president John Davitt admitted he had problems with the ethics of the story but denied being responsible for taking the papers.
The article ran in the June 9 edition of the newspaper and named a Glendale Community College nursing student who had recently committed suicide, Pojawa said.

Not long after distribution, Pojawa said staffers started to notice the papers “were disappearing from the stands at a really alarming rate ... clearly they weren’t just taken to be read, they were being confiscated.”

Pojawa estimated that nearly 2,000 of the 3,500 copies put out were taken, costing the paper around $2,500.

Davitt said he understood the paper had a right to print the story, but said he had ethical concerns with the article.

“My problem [with the article] was that it ... was put into the newspaper by the student reporter even though she had been told that the family [of the student who committed suicide] requested that it remain private,” Davitt said. “I asked the adviser if he would pull the article and I would pay the cost of re-doing the paper with a different article substituted for the article in question, but he declined.”

Glendale Community College Police Department did not respond to several calls for comment. Pojawa said she is not sure of the status of the investigation.

“I don’t know if the investigation is open or not. I don’t think the campus police ever questioned any suspects or anything like that,” she said.

Two students named in connection with campus newspaper taking in May

CALIFORNIA –– The Pasadena City College campus police reported in June that two Pasadena City College students were responsible for stealing the student newspaper in May.

On May 18, nearly 5,000 copies of The Courier went missing shortly after they were distributed on campus. Later that morning, several people entered the newspaper’s office and dropped off three bags filled with torn up copies of the paper. The bags had a note attached that blamed The Courier staff for not covering a recent event hosted by the campuses’ Hispanic group MEChA.

According to the police report, a Courier staff member was in the office at the time and eventually identified two MEChA members, Patrick Benjamin and Rebecca Contreras, who were named in the report. Additionally, a sample of Contreras’ handwriting was said to be “most closely matched” with the handwriting of the note left at the scene, according to the report.

“All MEChA Club members denied any involvement, conspiracy or advanced knowledge of the incident. Once Mirandized, all requested legal counsel to be present and invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self incrimination, refusing to cooperate with the investigation,” the report stated.

The report also stated the two students were culpable in the destruction of district property and were in violation of the Student Code of Conduct. But college spokesman Juan Gutierrez said the college has not taken any action against the students.

“[The college] has been dealing with situation all summer, and we’re trying to come to an understanding between the two groups,” Gutierrez said. “We’ve been trying to rectify the situation. Things are still in motion.”

Stolen newspapers found in presidential candidate’s garage

WASHINGTON — A police investigation has concluded that despite finding stolen copies of a Central Washington University newspaper in student body presidential candidate Ashley Gilmore’s garage, Gilmore could not be held solely responsible for the theft.

“The papers were found in the garage where five other students live in the house. We couldn’t conclude he took the newspapers, but what we did was give him a sanction and hold him accountable and responsible for probably having someone in the house take the newspapers,” said Keith Champagne, vice president for student affairs. “We asked him to make restitutions to the amount of the papers that were in his garage and issued him a sanction.”

Gilmore, who was running for student body president, was featured in a front-page story of the May 18 edition of The Observer that reported he had been acquitted in September 2005 of second-degree manslaughter in connection with the 2004 death of his roommate, Joseph Tibbs.

At the time of Tibbs’ death, Tibbs and Gilmore were roommates at Washington State University, according to an article in The Seattle Times. According to a February 2004 police report, Gilmore told officers he kicked a gun from Tibb’s hand in horseplay, and when the gun hit the floor, it fired bullets into Tibbs’ chest, the article said.

The student newspaper chose to run the story on May 18, the day of the election, because they received the tip about Gilmore the Monday before the May 18 issue, and the weekly paper coincidentally published on election day, said Rachel Guillermo, editor in chief of
The Observer. Gilmore lost the election.

Guillermo said out of 6,000 papers distributed on the night of May 17, 4,000 were missing the next morning. She said the paper reprinted the issue at a cost of $806.

Gilmore did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.

Conservative newspaper containing ‘Deepthroating’ article stolen

MARYLAND — A student editor at Johns Hopkins University said around 900 copies of his independent, conservative publication went missing shortly after they were distributed in May.

Jered Ede, editor of The Carrollton Record, said he suspects the paper was stolen in response to the cover story in the issue titled, “Deepthroating Hopkins, How Your Tuition Hike Pays the Gay Porn Industry.” The article reports on the showing of the 1972 adult film “Deep Throat” and a campus visit by gay pornography director Chi Chi LaRue, which were paid for with student fees.

Matthew Viator, co-director of the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance, which sponsored Chi Chi La Rue’s visit, said there are a number of inaccuracies in the story, which Ede wrote. He said La Rue spoke on how the taboo was removed from safe-sex practices and the talk was not a “porn” event as the newspaper described it.
Viator said he did not confiscate any of the stolen newspapers and he is not aware of anyone in DSAGA who did either.

When Ede tried to report the theft to campus security, he said the office would not allow him to file a report and referred him to Dean of Students Susan Boswell.

Ede said Boswell told him the newspaper was removed from residence halls because it was banned from distribution there.

Dennis O’Shea, a university spokesman, said a school policy states that only the university’s student newspaper, The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, can be distributed in residence halls.

“The Carrollton Record is welcomed to distribute this issue at the usual places on campus where periodicals are distributed,” O’Shea said. “Those places do not include residence halls. We don’t want them cluttered with the many student publications.”

Newspaper containing religious cartoon stolen twice

ILLINOIS — After an issue of their paper that contained the cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad was stolen, redistributed, then taken again, student editors in Illinois decided to place the issue in a glass case outside their office.

In May, more than 2,500 copies of the Courier, the student newspaper at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill., were stolen. Students reprinted the issues, which were also taken, Courier adviser Cathy Stablein said.

Kristina Zaremba, editor in chief of the Courier, said the papers went missing shortly after they were distributed.

Zaremba said the cartoons were published along with an article about an editorial cartoonist who gave a speech on campus titled “Drawing Fire: A Discussion on the Art of Visual Satire and the Muslim Cartoon Controversy.” The cartoons were also accompanied by an editorial explaining why the paper chose to print them.

Zaremba said she suspects those unhappy with the cartoons took the papers. She said paper staff members told the Muslim Student Association ahead of time that the Courier was planning on running the cartoons, and a lot of Muslim students complained about the decision before publication. A response from the Muslim Student Association was also printed along with the cartoons in the stolen issue.

Zaremba said she has been in contact with administrators who originally told her there was nothing they could do about the theft. Administrators told Zaremba that students who stole the papers could be subject to judicial review by the school if she provided specific names.

Zaremba estimates the Courier lost $3,000 in printing, staff salary and other costs related to the theft.

Nearly 5,000 Rhode Island student newspapers stolen

RHODE ISLAND — Nearly every copy of an April issue of The Good 5¢ Cigar was stolen, and editors said they suspect an article on a fraternity prompted the theft.
Stephen Greenwell, editor of the University of Rhode Island’s student newspaper, said the papers were distributed around 9 a.m. and by the afternoon, most of the 5,000 press run had disappeared.

“It was a Friday, when classes are half-empty, so that kind of demand is unprecedented,” Greenwell said.

Greenwell said he believes the papers were stolen because of a story that appeared in the paper on the expulsion of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, better known as FIJI, from Greek Week festivities due to alcohol violations.

The papers cost around $350 to print and had $600 worth of advertisements, including classifieds, Greenwell said. He said he filed a report with campus police.

Phi Gamma Delta President Brian Boucher said to his knowledge the case was closed and no party had been charged. But according to Barbara McDonald, an officer at the

University of Rhode Island’s police department, the investigation was still open as of early August.

Around 8,000 papers taken costing paper $6,500, editor says

KANSAS — Two men posing as newspaper staff members stole thousands of copies of a Kansas student newspaper in April, claiming that a misprint in the newspaper required that all the papers be recalled.

Officer Parrish Quick with the Kansas State University Police Department said the two suspects were seen taking copies of the Kansas State Collegian from a news rack in the recreation center and driving away in a white sport utility vehicle, according to an article in the student paper.

About 8,000 copies of the daily paper’s 11,000 press run were stolen, said Michael Ashford, Collegian managing editor. He estimated the paper lost about $6,500 in printing, staff and advertising costs as a result of the theft.

“We’re actually kind of upset and stunned that something like this is going on,” Ashford said. “It’s disturbing that people feel that they need to take these kind of actions.”

Ashford said the paper sent a packet of information they collected to the KSU police in May but had not heard back from them since.

“It sounds like the KSU Police dropped the matter not long after it happened. But that’s not surprising, as they were difficult to work with from the start,” Ashford said.

According to Troy Lane, assistant chief of police for the KSU police department, no report was made to the county prosecutor because it did not qualify as a theft.