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Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                        Robyn Morrow             Chris Elliott                        
                                               John Arterbury       Caitlin Cuppernull

Fire shows disrespect for student press

Stealing, underage drinking and vandalism -- not exactly activities a student leader should be caught doing. The shared governance director of the University of Wisconsin at River Falls Student Senate didn't get that memo.

When 19-year-old Tony Schaaf didn't want to see his name in the Student Voice, the university's newspaper, after receiving an underage drinking citation, he burned more than $2,000 worth of newspapers in a bonfire at his fraternity, TwinCities.com reported. But Schaaf wasn't alone. He had fellow fraternity member Jason Schultz, a member of the Student Senate's ethics committee, at his side. Maybe they weren't aware that stealing and burning $2,000 worth of papers wasn't quite ethical.

Schaaf was worried that his name would be included in the Student Voice's crime report, so instead he made an incredibly stupid decision, and now it's front-page news. Perhaps Schaaf should have considered that although he burned quite a few copies of the publication, his lack of good judgment would also be on the publication's Web site. Too bad he can't destroy the Internet.

Schaaf's act shows a complete disregard for free press. Student newspapers at public universities are guaranteed freedom of speech and shouldn't tolerate censorship. Sometimes they may print unfavorable items. How many times have you picked up a paper only to be outraged by an article you felt was inappropriate? However, just because student publications publish something readers may not like or something that's unfavorable to an on-campus personality, it doesn't give people the right to destroy thousands of dollars worth of property. 

The students at UW-River Falls work hard to deliver the news to their campus and shouldn't have to suffer at the hands of a student leader who can't abide by the law.