A Fair Warning To Our Readers, Student or Faculty

I was again asked by the Chief Editor of the Mount Observer to write an editorial in response to one of the most heinous acts of vandalism or possibly censorship ever commited upon our published materials. It was featured in the September 2007 issue. Consequently, it was also my last published article in the Mount Observer due to conflicts of disposition with the student newspaper's advisor over this very controversy. There were a few strong leads suggesting that the College President may have personally thrown away an estimated 90 percent of the entire batch of the May 2007 issue. (which coincidently occurred one day before Governor Deval Pratrick was scheduled to speak during the 2007 graduation ceremony, and also featured my editorial which was strongly critical of the president.) However, my strong leads were suppressed and I was accused of brazen, irresponsible judgement by my advisor...which in turn I accused of cowardice.



In the morning of May 17, the day that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick spoke amongst the 2007 student graduates of our beloved community college, out of nine Mount Observer newspaper bins, all but one was emptied and later found thrown into various recycle bins.

The chance to display the quality of writing from those participating student journalists was ruined, and those who had attended the commencement ceremony, including our state governor himself , were denied access to potentially valuable information regarding our school; Information that had taken the entire staff of volunteer journalists, photographers, paid advertisers, editors, and printers a month-long effort to create, prepare, and deliver.

Although suspicions have not been confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt as to who was the culprit, or even if foul play was the motive, the entire staff of the Mount Observer feels we must take this time to address the issue of censorship and newspaper theft, in order to deter such future acts of possible suppression of free speech, vandalism, or gross negligence.

According to the Student Press Law Center, a legal organization dedicated to the provisions and support for the rights of student journalists, public college and university publications are protected under the First Amendment from any government censorship. Student Journalists cannot be coerced into press regulation, subjected to prior review, disciplined for unpopular submissions, removed from position, or denied funds based on content.

If the motive is simple theft or vandalism, be warned that a free newspaper does not give a single group or individual the right to steal, deface, or remove large quantities of its publication. Our full intention is to allow all students the right and privilege to read it, so we allow one free paper per student, and we have every right to charge any monetary value for each additional copy taken, so long as it is clearly printed within our publication's masthead.

Be also warned that we have every right to take legal action, notify law enforcement, press charges, and tally the total loss according to the total number of papers stolen or destroyed, its printing and delivery costs, refunded revenue in advertising, salary paid to staff, telephone and postage expenses, and various materials consequently wasted which could bring the total to thousands of dollars.

Will we enforce a draconian policy if a student wishes to take several copies for friends and family? Hardly. We are reasonable and wish only to satisfy our readers. However, we feel we were wronged once already, with almost 90% of our May issue needlessly destroyed. Whether it was intentionally malicious or just simply ignorant, such losses will never happen again without serious repercussions to all guilty parties. We promise.