Photo Courtesy of Timi Keszthelyi / Pexels
By Alexa Lima
More than 1,000 copies of the Southwestern College Sun student newspaper and about 150 copies of El Sol Magazine were stolen from newsstands on campus and nearby businesses in early July. Campus police were unable to identify the perpetrators. Value of the stolen publications exceeded $4,300.
Staff and faculty of the journalism program loaded campus newsstands with publications the Thursday evening before the start of a new summer school session. It was the campus debut of El Sol XIV, produced by the spring Campus Newspaper Production Class. On Sunday morning they discovered that every single copy was gone.
“It was pretty sad that someone would steal all of our work like that,” said Nicolette Luna, the 17-year-old Editor-in-Chief of El Sol XIV. “We do our best to do a good job with the newspaper and magazine to represent our community. It’s a shame so many people will never get to see those issues.”
The Editorial Board of The Sun issued a statement that said the perpetrators will not deter Southwestern College journalism students from their mission.
“They can steal our newspapers and magazines, but they cannot steal our determination,” it said. “We’re back this semester as strong as ever and ready to do great work for our community.”
Journalism students received support from local news media and national free speech organizations like FIRE and the Student Press Law Center. Several lawyers in San Diego County and Washington D.C. volunteered to prosecute suspected thieves if captured. If prosecutors are able to prove the thefts were an effort to squelch free speech, perpetrators could be convicted of felonies under national legislation protecting print publications. Student publications are also protected against theft under state and federal law.
Journalism professor Dr. Max Branscomb said the newspaper was the target of abuse last year by self-identified Christian Nationalists, Professor Watchlist and other ultra-conservative organizations as well as individuals who expressed disapproval of journalism students’ coverage of LGBTQ issues, students who live in Mexico and cross the border to attend college, and coverage of minority students.
“People asked me who we may have angered and I honestly don’t know,” he said. “I kind of feel like the last issue of the spring was not particularly controversial. I can’t imagine anyone on campus being upset about anything in the issue. It was a very celebratory newspaper with lots of nice articles about impressive students. It’s too bad a lot of folks never got to see the issue.”
Editors decided to reprint six articles from the stolen edition. They will be republished in future issues of The Sun.
In August El Sol XIV was named National College Magazine of the Year by the American Educators of Journalism and Mass Communications. Former Washington Post Magazine Editor Richard Just and Discover Magazine Editorial Director Stephen George wrote in their judge’s comments: “El Sol outshone all others with its broad range of topics and school coverage…(it) delivered the goods with an outstanding offering of quality graphics, layout and storytelling. Creative, earnest and unusual in the most wonderful way, El Sol was strikingly ambitious in topics it tackled…El Sol is extraordinary.”
The issue was named National College Magazine of the Year from the Associated Collegiate Press and the College Media Association at the National College Media Convention in New Orleans this month.
Branscomb said The Sun and El Sol have been targeted before. Islamophobes destroyed hundreds of copies of The Sun in 2003 and left burned piles near the journalism building to protest an article about an Iraqi refugee attending Southwestern.
In 2005 a militant anarchist group burned copies of The Sun, vandalized the journalism building and threatened to kill the advisor and a student journalist over the newspaper’s immigration coverage. Supporters of former college president Raj Chopra stole thousands of copies of The Sun in 2010. Chopra later ordered the advisor to cease publication of the student newspaper until after the November election, a directive the faculty member refused to follow.
In 2016 when The Sun and El Sol published cover photos of a newly-elected Muslim ASO president wearing her hijab, Islamophobes and supporters of Donald Trump destroyed nearly $8,000 worth of student publications by tearing off the covers or scrawling “Trump 2016” across the student’s face. Later that year issues of The Sun featuring Black students protesting the shooting death of an unarmed Black man by El Cajon police were defaced with the messages “Trump 2016” and “Fuck Blacks.”
In 2022 hundreds of copies of El Sol XII featuring a trio of elderly Holocaust survivors were vandalized and stomped. Others were set afire and thrown into campus dumpsters.
“No previous attempts to silence Southwestern College journalism students were successful and none ever will be,” Branscomb said. “It’s pretty cowardly to destroy the work of talented teenagers and young adults who strive to serve this community. I think a vast majority of the people who live in our South Bay community are kind, tolerant people who support Southwestern College students. Obviously, there are a few who don’t.”
