CORRECTION: A past version of this story misspelled Deborah Miller-Calvert’s name. This story has also been edited to correct minor typos.
The Viking’s student journalist was threatened with disciplinary action in a student misconduct letter on Monday, after asking members of the administration for information regarding the recently invalidated ASB election.
The disciplinary action comes after growing frustration regarding the lack of transparency surrounding the election. Since the May 4 ruling to invalidate the results, certain ASB members and The Viking have repeatedly sought clarification regarding who made the decision, why the results were invalidated and what evidence called for a re-election.
The letter sent to Paloma Maciel accuses the Co-Editor in Chief of engaging in “persistent and increasingly harassing and aggressive behavior” while requesting interviews with Dean of Student Affairs Deborah Miller-Calvert and ASB adviser Kim Hamon about the ASB election.
Miller-Calvert declined to address questions surrounding the disciplinary action.
The email sent to Paloma Maciel on Monday notified her of the incident report.
During a phone call with Executive Vice President of Student Services Nohel C. Corral and Associate Vice President of Public Affairs Carl Kemp regarding the incident with Maciel, Corral confirmed that the reason for a re-election was that officials could not separate potential invalid votes from legitimate ballots within the system.
“To my knowledge, we’ve been using this system, which is Viking Engage(ment), for the past four to five years,” Corral said.
“We worked with a vendor to try to remove those entries, and they were unable to do so because once they’re in their system, it then becomes anonymized,” Corral said. “So that was why we had to pause the election, because we couldn’t validate the results.”
When asked why the issue had not surfaced in previous elections, Corral declined to explain.
The issue at hand is no longer solely about an invalidated election and the authentication of voter fraud. It is about whether students at Long Beach City College risk being threatened with disciplinary action when asking for transparency from their administration members.
Maciel said she believes the incident in the disciplinary letter was taken “completely out of context” and described the accusations against her as confusing and offensive.
According to Maciel, ASB administrators frequently redirected her between officials, provided vague responses or declined to answer questions, making it difficult to determine who was responsible for overseeing the elections and how the voting system works.
“How do you not know how the system works, but you’re the spokesperson?” Maciel told The Viking. “That’s very concerning, especially for an election that’s supposed to represent the student government.”
Maciel specified after Miller-Calvert’s May 8 interview, she approached Hamon’s nearby office for clarification on the ASB elections. After they declined to comment, Hamon left her office and Maciel said she was not blocking the doorway in anyway.
“ (The report) also said the situation escalated to the point where the staff member felt unsafe and sought shelter in another office,” Maciel said. “Like, I don’t know how they felt unsafe about not answering a question, that they had to flee to shelter. If (they) would have told me (they) were feeling uncomfortable and to leave, then I would have left.”
Maciel said that after later being asked to leave by Miller-Calvert she left.
Maciel also criticized what she described as a lack of transparency and organization among administrators overseeing student government.
She argued that repeatedly asking questions and seeking interviews fall within standard journalistic practice, particularly when reporting on matters affecting the student body.
“That’s not harassment,” Maciel said. “That’s basic information that the public should know.”
Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel for the Student Press Law Center, said the disciplinary report issued against Maciel appears to be an example of administrators attempting to “reframe this kind of ordinary reporting as some sort of official misconduct under school rules.”
According to Hiestand, schools cannot enforce conduct rules simply because administrators did not like the critical coverage or scrutiny from student media.
“It’s entirely appropriate to have neutral rules that are generally protected and enforced,” Hiestand said. “But they should not be selectively invoked simply because administrators don’t like the scrutiny or the critical coverage.”
Hiestand emphasized that student journalists maintain many of the same constitutional protections afforded to professional reporters, including the right to investigate stories, ask difficult questions and seek comment from public officials or school administrators.
“The First Amendment to our Constitution talks about freedom of the press,” Hiestand said. “It’s not an optional sort of rule to follow.”
During the conversation with the college’s administrators, Corral repeatedly insisted LBCC supports student journalism, claiming it “support(s) student press” and “value(s) the First Amendment rights that student press has.” It was also stated that administrators and staff receive media training on how to engage with student journalists.
Corral and Kemp said that the trainings were in response to issues in which student press rights were violated, such as a Planned Parenthood-related campus event that was canceled after the student press stood its ground after being asked to leave.
A video of a training session on Feb. 4 was given to The Viking by Kemp, focusing largely on managing communications and redirecting questions from press rather than explaining student press rights or First Amendment protections.
Yet despite these trainings, student journalists continue to encounter barriers while covering controversial campus issues. In previous incidents, reporters were redirected away from staff and denied access to events.
The contradictions between the administration’s stated support for student journalism and its actions has become increasingly difficult to ignore.
When asked whether the disciplinary report constituted retaliation, both Corral and Kemp declined to answer the question directly and instead referred back to the ongoing student conduct process.
“I think every student conduct issue is unique in and of itself,” Corral said. “We would need to go through our respective processes to investigate.”
ASB President Priince Bass, who Maciel has interviewed on various stories, criticized the disciplinary report, arguing that Maciel’s reporting efforts reflected standard journalism practices rather than misconduct. “That’s just reporting. How are we supposed to get the news?”
He added that he had “never seen (Maciel) being hostile or aggressive” and instead viewed her as “somebody who wants to do a good job.”
Corral confirmed the disciplinary investigation into Maciel would continue and declined to state whether the report would be dismissed, meaning the editor-in-chief could still face sanctions tied directly to her reporting efforts surrounding the ASB election controversy.
“At the end of that process, there’ll be either a dismissal or otherwise found to be true,” Corral said.
Their refusal to acknowledge concerns of retaliation, while simultaneously continuing the investigation, only intensified criticism and lack of support for press freedom.
After meeting Maciel at an Upward Bound commencement event on Wednesday, Corral acknowledged her work on the college’s paper and said he appreciated everything she is doing reporting on school issues.
Maciel expressed concern about the broader implications the investigation could have on future student journalists at LBCC.
“This sends the message that you’re not welcome to question people,” Maciel said. “Especially for beginning student journalists, I think it’s very discouraging.”
Because of the investigation, Maciel said she is concerned about what the situation means for future coverage of student government and accountability reporting on campus.
“I think that’s alarming,” Maciel said. “Not having anyone investigate what’s going on when a whole re-election happens … that’s the message you’re sending right now: Don’t talk to us.”
Kemp declined to make Superintendent-President Mike Munoz available for an interview for the story and said Corral, who oversees Student Services, is authorized to speak on Muñoz’s behalf.
The Viking also reached out to Journalism adviser Walter Hammerwold, who declined to comment.
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