Confiscated College Newspapers Released

East Los Angeles College administrators Thursday released nearly 4,000 copies of the campus newspaper that they had confiscated Wednesday because of concerns about a front-page photograph revealing a possible witness in a murder investigation.

After weighing the student newspaper’s rights under the 1st Amendment against student security at the school, college President Ernest Moreno said, he decided to release the copies. Moreno said he considered the fact that some newspapers were not confiscated by administrators and remained in circulation among students.

“We felt that the 1st Amendment had top priority,” Moreno said. He added, however, that he didn’t think Wednesday’s seizure by subordinates was a mistake.

“Given the . . . circumstances [administrators] were facing, they did the right thing,” he said, adding that student safety is a major concern at the college.

The decision to pull the weekly campus paper, the Campus News, was roundly criticized by the paper’s student editors and reporters, the paper’s advisor and representatives of several media organizations, who thought the seizure violated both the 1st Amendment and the paper’s own policies.

After the copies reappeared Thursday morning in campus racks, students crowded around to get copies.

“Where’s the paper? Where’s the paper?” some asked.

“We’re happy about getting the paper back,” said editor in chief Juan Aceves. “But we’re unhappy [Moreno] won’t apologize.”

While Moreno was attending a community college trustees’ meeting Wednesday in West Los Angeles, Daniel Ornelas, dean of student development and services, said he ordered the seizure on the advice of legal counsel and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Later, sheriff’s officials said they did not ask for the confiscation.

This week’s edition of the Campus News featured a front-page story and photos about the murder Monday of student Joseph Robert Gallegos, 20, who was shot in a campus parking lot.

Gallegos, who was getting off a bus with his fiancee and her two children, was shot by a gunman after an argument. The gunman fled in a car.

Student reporter Diana Casillas interviewed witnesses at the scene and photographer Kim Matthews took pictures.

In one of three front-page photographs, the partially concealed face of a student, who said she witnessed the shooting, is visible. She refused to be interviewed by the student newspaper and College News editors suspect she was afraid the picture’s publication might put her in danger.

That apparently prompted Ornelas’ decision to seize the paper.

In a telephone interview, Moreno would not say whether he would have ordered the papers’ seizure if he had been on campus. He said the decision to release the papers came after talks with college officials.

He added, “I certainly want to express that we are supportive of our journalism department and our campus paper.”

Sheriff’s detectives said no arrests have been made in the case.