An Abundance of Caution?

I usually read the Eastern Progress at lunch. Today I chuckled from salad to dessert.

This from the Eastern Progress, Photo by Rachel Stone:

Safe is Sexy at EKU

While some students are showering their sweethearts with flowers, cards and over-sized stuffed animals this Valentine's Day, others may be giving a gift that's a bit more exciting than heart-shaped boxes of chocolates...

Kelsey Bennett, a freshman nursing major, and Mary Turner, a freshman physical education major, both from Elizabethtown, race to put condoms on fake penises during a sex education event...

Is it just me, or is this the funniest safe sex picture since Mandy Pepperidge, frustrated by Gregg Marmalard's lack of concentration, snapped off the latex gloves?

What's with the goggles? Are Eastern girls are being warned to protect themselves against the dreaded "snapback?" Or are those things loaded?

Meghan Scott, a health educator for student health services, said the programs are important because of the dangers involved with having sex.

Happy ending predicted for EKU Open Records Flap

Frustrated by a change in university policy following the Kappa Alpha Psi hazing incident - a change that caused the university police to begin redacting large portions of police reports given to the Eastern Progress - the student newspaper declared, "We're Not Chicken!" and sought an Attorney General's ruling.

That was last spring.

Over the summer the Attorney General agreed with the paper.

In the first edition of the fall term (Aug 28), new Progress Editor Ben Kleppinger wrote of the victory and declared,

" If the university police are unwilling to allow the public to see the open records they have a right to see in a timely manner, the Progress will continue fighting and holding the university accountable, every week, until things change.

It's been nearly a month now and during that time - not a peep out of the chicken coup. So KSN&C decided to check in with Kleppinger to see how its going.

It's getting very close to being resolved, Kleppnger said. After several meetings involving the university counsel, the police, and others, they have finally "worked out a plan." Based on those meetings, the University Counsel is "putting together some guidelines" that provide police reports to the Progress, but which also will describe certain circumstances where the police may redact information with a process for counsel review.

Kleppinger thinks this will work out well for everyone and the Progress will outline the agreement in the paper when details are finalized.

Meanwhile, the incident that apparently caused the heavy police redactions has gone to trial. WKYT-TV reported, EKU student Brent Whiteside testified in August that "he feared for his life on campus" and was "beaten every day for close to two months...with paddles, canes and fists" - all to join the fraternity.

The beatings started on January 29th, and ended on March 6th when Whiteside said he vomited and urinated blood. He went to the hospital where he was told he was having kidney failure.

21-year-old Thomas Barnes, 22-year-old Gerald McLaren and 32-year-old Alonzo McGill, accused of beating Whiteside, have pleaded not guilty to fourth degree assault charges.

EKU has suspended the fraternity for eight years.

The judge said the case will go to trial in late October.

Student Newspaper Fires a Shot across EKU's Bow

Last Friday, the EKU student newspaper submitted a 50-page formal complaint to Attorney General Jack Conway alleging that the university violated state law when it withheld public information requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

Today, The Eastern Progress editor Marty Finley went public with his complaint.

His half-page editorial claimed that the "University is censoring the Progress." To punch up their point, in today's print edition, the word "censoring" is redacted in such a way as to possibly suggest any number of "___g" words that might be under cover. They also produced a new ad declaring: "The Eastern Progress: We're not Chicken!"

Finley told KSN&C that working with the university has actually been pretty good until recently. The change of attitude immediately followed a recent hazing story involving Kappa Alpha Psi, an EKU fraternity. The university suspended the fraternity while it investigated a claim that hazing sent a student to the hospital.

In April, the Progress pursued an open records request that produced only some of the requested documents; a number of them heavily redacted. University Counsel argued that the redactions were appropriate under Kentucky Revised Statute 61.878 and were intended to protect "personal privacy" such as addresses and ages (which the paper uses as distinguishing identifiers - to avoid misidentification of uninvolved parties). But Finley says "sometimes they redacted whole sections" of reports.

The law makes certain records exempt from inspection, such as,

"Public records containing information of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy...

This from The Eastern Progress:

"...We believe that some information is clearly private, such as credit card account numbers or social security numbers, but we feel addresses, ages and even phone numbers do not violate this statute.

Quite frankly, the statute does not list any of those as examples, but the university has chosen to use this as a blanket statement to keep this information secret.We think they couldn't be more wrong.

But the Progress did not blindly assume this. We contacted a Kentucky Press Association lawyer who specializes in media law. He was utterly dumbfounded by our story and suggested we contact the Attorney General for an official ruling.

While we have not heard back from the Attorney General as of press time, we feel withholding such information is a clear violation of open records law - the records should be given to us as free of redactions as possible." ...

KSN&C is seeking comment from the university regarding today's editorial.