By CRISTINA JANNEY
HUTCHINSON — The Hutchinson Community College newspaper will be allowed to print the last edition of its paper for the semester after the suspension of the journalism program Friday.
Alan Montgomery, who has taught at HCC for 17 years, said he was suspended with pay Friday afternoon, and journalism classes were canceled after a story was published in the student newspaper Friday that was critical of the administration’s disciplinary policies.
The paper also contained a letter from Montgomery to the U.S. Attorney’s office detailing alleged violations of student journalists’ First Amendment and due process rights.
Montgomery said he will fight his suspension.
HCC President Carter File told Hays Post Tuesday afternoon the students will be allowed to publish the last edition of the newspaper, although journalism classes and finals had been canceled.
“The students made such a great and compelling argument,” he said, “that we were happy to do this.”
The college will have a staff member in the lab while the students are working, but File said the students will have complete editorial control of the paper’s content.
The last edition of this school year’s paper is scheduled to hit the racks on Friday.
Copies of the latest issue of the Collegian were partially distributed Friday and Monday morning. However, as student journalists were trying to distribute the rest of the papers, bundles were seized by college security.
“They broke federal law,” Montgomery said. “They violated the First Amendment. This is like North Korea or the Old Soviet Union. It violates a sacred part of the our society, the First Amendment.”
The Post and other media contacted the college about the seizure of the papers and the suspension of the program Monday morning.
The papers were given to members of the Student Governing Association to be delivered Monday afternoon.
File contended there was no intent to quash the paper.
The issues between the administration and journalism department started in December when the student newspaper, the Collegian, printed a story about issues between a teacher and her supervisor.
Montgomery was a co-president of the teacher’s Union and had been involved with the investigation of what he called “bullying” of the teacher. He said he shared details of the investigation with his students as a part of a case study for a journalism class.
The students asked to write a stories about the issue, but the administration and alleged perpetrator being investigated would not speak to the students.
However, Montgomery, who was interviewed for the students’ story, shared copies of emails with the alleged victim and other public documents that had been released in Union and Faculty Senate meetings.
Montgomery said he was reluctant to be a source for the story but believed it was the only way the truth would get out. He has since resigned from the leadership of the Union.
After the stories appeared, the student journalists were brought up on disciplinary charges. Montgomery provided his own money to hire attorney Max Kautsch, who also represents the Kansas Press Association, to defend the students in their disciplinary hearings.
“I was really, really afraid that the two students were going to be expelled,” he said.
At one point, the students were asked to sign immunity agreements with gag orders. Montgomery said the administration was trying to find damning information on him.
However, both students refused to sign the agreements.
The students were bought in for questioning a second time on charges of academic dishonesty.
“I think this is a really shameful violation of the students’ due process rights,” Montgomery said. “There has been a lot of secrecy. Who made the complaint? What are they charged with? It is almost the end of the semester and, to this day, they don’t know if they are going to be expelled.”
In addition to the letter to the U.S. Attorney, Montgomery also sent a letter to the Kansas Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division, saying the students had been swindled out of their tuition.
“When they enrolled here, they had a realistic expectation that they would be treated like journalists,” he said.
Instead the students were “attacked” by the administration, Montgomery added.
Montgomery said he has been barred from HCC property and is waiting to hear from the college’s board as to his fate.
“I want the students to get back to classes and labs,” he said, “and I want to get back to teaching them.”