LBCC staff and administration continue to violate students’ press rights after providing a sense of false authority to a guest speaker, ultimately insinuating that individuals must gain permission to respond to members of the student press. 

Today a Viking News reporter attempted to ask Alex Petunia, a non-staff member and poet who led the “Affirmation and Poetry” event, a question about her previous workshops thirty minutes prior to the event. 

Rather than providing a response, Petunia immediately turned to Mark Casas, a mental health clinician in student health services, for approval to answer. 

“For any questions, refer to Stacey Toda, Chief of Information,” said Casas.

This is the direct result of a lack of communication with staff and administration in regards to student press rights which has been violated multiple times on campus. 

“LBCC strongly protects free speech and press rights, and access to the press is a priority for us,” LBCC President Mike Munoz said in a meeting with the Viking News just last week. 

Many of these incidents have occurred in events associated with Healthy Viking Coordinator, Joe Polanco, who has previously kicked student news reporters out of public events, including a public empowerment workshop in March. 

Polanco denies ever kicking a Viking News reporter out of an event. 

Polanco, Casas, and Chanel Hamilton, the administrative assistant to student health services, were instructed by Deborah Miller-Calvert, the dean of student affairs, to defer sending reporters straight to Stacey Toda, LBCC’s communications and community engagement director. 

However, there have been misinterpretations about how and when to resort to this option.

Calvert did not immediately respond to the Viking News request to comment. 

“There may be some confusion about our protocol in terms of speaking to press. Our protocol is that employees are told to refer to me for any questions they are unsure about, but this is freedom of press and anybody is free to speak to the media and I will be working on educating our staff about how to encourage our journalism students here at LBCC,” said Toda.  

LBCC’s staff and administration are taking advantage of Toda’s role, creating an unnecessary step in communication with Viking News. 

“A lot of people have been trigger happy about it, like, ‘Oh, send it to Stacey’,” Toda said. 

After a conversation with Toda, the Viking News reporter informed Petunia of her rights to talk to the press, which is an unnecessary step that could have been avoided. 

“Ok, I just need to get the ok from (Mark Casas), since he is the one directing me here today,” Petunia said. 

Staff should not be implementing a sense of false authority or instructing individuals on how to handle situations regarding LBCC student press, especially when they aren’t associated with the college itself. 

Furthermore, these incidents shouldn’t occur especially at simple, routine events that are open to the public. 

Why would faculty feel the need to communicate through Toda about a simple poetry workshop?

Faculty and staff are still unsure about whether or not they are allowed to speak to members of the student press, being told to defer to Toda for all communication, although this memo is being used in events that do not require Toda’s input. 

Last semester, the advisor of the Viking News, Walter Hammerwold, told the newspaper class that he met with both Mike Munoz and Carl Kemp, the executive director of public affairs and marketing, regarding student press rights being denied at LBCC. 

Munoz made it clear that an email would be going out to staff outlining LBCC’s commitment to the rights of the student press. 

Both Polanco and Hamilton were unaware of this email.

When asked if she would be able to send out the directive, Toda said, “I don’t have a timeline for you regarding a memo. I can’t answer that.” 

The Viking News reached out to Hammerwold, but he declined to comment. 

Blocking anybody, including members of the student press, from entering and obtaining interviews in public spaces is illegal and a violation of the First Amendment. 

The clear solution is to train staff and administration on how to interact with members of the student press, something that Munoz identified as a possibility last semester if these issues continued, but has not followed through with. 

“There is currently no training scheduled. There’s a possibility of training if another problem occurs,” Munoz said last week. 

Claiming to protect student press rights despite not taking action against those who violate them has been Long Beach City College’s pattern for several semesters now. 

If the college and its representatives, namely Munoz, Kemp, and Toda, truly care about student press rights the way they claim to, they will do more than just address problems with their staff as they appear. 

The Viking News provides Long Beach City College students with coverage on events, policy changes, and news on campus; the college’s disregard for the rights of student journalists impedes on this coverage. 

As of today, Long Beach City College’s employees have continued to infringe on student press rights, and action must be taken to ensure the rights of student journalists are taken seriously on this campus.