WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The temporary seizure of newspapers at a Kansas community college last week shone a media spotlight on a long-running dispute between administrators and student journalists.
Hutchinson Community College’s board of trustees is expected Tuesday to wade into the controversy.
That is when suspended journalism professor Alan Montgomery plans to talk to trustees about the administration’s treatment of the student journalists and its alleged use of disciplinary procedures to punish them for news stories.
The administration earlier this month suspended him and cancelled his classes before the end of the semester.
Montgomery calls it an absolute planned conspiracy to deny these students their First Amendment rights.
HCC President Carter File defended the college’s actions, saying he doesn’t care what is in the paper.