An incident at a domestic violence awareness workshop has recently highlighted LBCC’s disregard for student press rights.
A reporter for the Viking News attended this workshop and after a few minutes, with students in attendance, a speaker from Planned Parenthood canceled the event, saying she was “not in a good mood.”
While it was not an LBCC employee this time, the behavior exhibited by this speaker has been an ongoing issue for The Viking.
It is ridiculous that the college is so afraid of its student press that it allows guests on campus to cancel events to prevent student reporters from things that are considered sensitive topics.
The college needs to ensure that its employees are properly media trained and know that telling student reporters they cannot cover public events that are open to everyone on a public campus is a violation of their constitutional rights.
That the threat of a student reporter covering a workshop was enough for a Planned Parenthood employee to cancel and reschedule an event that people were already in attendance for is absurd.
Canceling an event after it began and attendees were already seated wastes their time and takes away their opportunity to engage with the topic at hand.
Not only that, this type of behavior infantilizes students and assumes that anyone who has a problem with The Viking’s presence is unable to speak for themselves.
None of the eight students present at the event raised concern over the reporter, it was only the presenter herself who was unhappy with the Viking covering the event.
One attendee even told the Viking that the Planned Parenthood speaker “needs to be a fucking adult.”
College employees must ensure that any guest speakers are aware that they cannot prohibit student press from covering events, regardless of the sensitivity of the topic at hand.
Event coordinators on campus such as Derek Oiree and Joseph Polanco have attempted to turn away student reporters before, only to back down once the Viking’s advisor, Walter Hammerwold, spoke with them.
Reporters have been frequently told that these events are meant to be “safe spaces” for students to share their experiences and emotions without judgment, but that idea stands in direct contradiction with the way these events are held.
While some may raise concern over The Viking reporting on conversations that may be considered personal or sensitive, it is important to remember that reporters are attempting to raise awareness of different resources available on campus.
This idea that reporters are attending these workshops in order to expose the personal lives of students or cause harm needs to stop.
By hosting these workshops and conversations on a public campus, using public funding, the college must understand that it is illegal to block anyone, including student-press, from attending the event as long as they are not being disruptive.
This has not been the first time student reporters have been turned away from events, despite the illegality of telling reporters they cannot cover an event that has been marketed as open to the public.
It seems that many employees of this college believe that “open to everyone” does not include the press.
The college needs to make changes to the way employees are trained to deal with the student press, before they open themselves up to potential lawsuits for continuously violating press rights on its campuses.