Radford University Disciplines Employee Responsible for Stolen Student Newspapers

Radford University has internally disciplined a “classified staff employee” responsible for swiping some of the 1,000 missing copies of the university’s student-run newspaper The Tartan in September.

The university has not identified the worker’s name, but Chief of Police David Underwood stated in a letter that the worker will not be charged criminally. In the letter, Underwood wrote that there was nothing illegal in “someone taking multiple copies of a free newspaper.”

The Tartan’s Editor-in-Chief Dylan Lepore, however, feels differently and said that the paper has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for further security footage and is looking into filing a civil rights complaint.

“It’s definitely going to escalate. … It’s a First Amendment issue,” Lepore said to The Roanoke Times.

In addition, the paper has contacted the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit located in Washington, D.C. for advice on what actions to take next. According to SPLC guidelines, stealing free newspapers is classified as a crime because it removes community-funded property. The 1,000 missing copies comprises two thirds of the student-funded newspaper’s weekly run.

Meanwhile, the motive for the theft of the Sept. 18^th edition of the paper remains unknown, though various theories exist.

According to the Roanoke Times, university President Brian Hemphill and other school officials were offended by The Tartan’s choice of a front-page photo accompanying the obituary of Stephen Tibbets, a new Criminal Justice department chairman. The photo, provided by Tibbets’ wife, featured Tibbets standing beneath a street sign bearing his last name and the words “dead end” on it.

In the same edition, the paper also covered the death of freshman Aris Eduardo Lobo-Perez who died while in custody at the New River Valley Regional Jail.

Further adding to speculation, the 1,000 missing newspapers disappeared the evening before television journalist Katie Couric moderated a political discussion on campus before alumni, members of the board of visitors, students and other guests.

“I don’t know if any of that holds. But that’s a theory,” Lepore told The Roanoke Times.