A former staff member of the Southwestern College Sun was dismissed from the journalism program for surreptitiously providing personal student information to an underground pamphlet periodically distributed on campus by unknown writers. Just days later Rick Flores, 21, a history major and former assistant photo editor at The Sun, was fired from his job as an SWC Campus Police public safety assistant for impersonating Police Chief Michael Cash in emails in an account he created. Flores, who also admitted writing at least one anonymous article for the pamphlet that was critical of The Sun and its faculty while on the college newspaper staff, was forced to resign his position of student president of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges, a Sacramento- based educational organization. He was elected JACC student president last spring. He was also pulled from an assignment for The Sun to travel to the Reno Jazz Festival to cover college vocal groups performing at the prestigious event.
The Sun was leaked a trove of documents related to the Jag Wire, an agitprop pamphlet periodically placed without permission in The Sun’s newsstands, on tables and on the ground around campus. Its content generally focuses on grievances with college administrators, faculty, classified employees and The Sun. Essays are usually bylined with names of historic figures, cultural references and first names of former staff members of The Sun.
Documents provided to The Sun also include correspondence between the pamphlet’s unknown publishers and Dean of Student Services Mia McClellan. During an interview McClellan emphatically denied initiating contact or assisting the Jag Wire.
Jag Wire staff has access to SWC’s confidential student record system, which it has used to verify the identity of students corresponding with the pamphlet. Professor of Journalism Dr. Max Branscomb said he notified SWC President Dr. Melinda Nish immediately when evidence of a student records system breach surfaced. Branscomb said he also spoke to IT Director Daniel Borges and Director of Human Services Marvin Castillo about the security breach.
DISGRUNTLED STUDENT
Flores was in his fifth semester with The Sun when a reporter was provided Jag Wire documents. Flores had
been in contact with the pamphlet for at least five months, going back to October 2014, possibly longer. His Jag Wire handler encouraged him to vent his frustrations with The Sun in an article. A draft submitted by Flores criticized The Sun, Branscomb and Editor-in-Chief Anna Pryor for not covering topics of interest to him such as South Bay high school musical events, the Imperial Beach mayoral election and the controversies in the San Ysidro School District (which Flores was assigned to cover). A manipulated version of his article appeared in the pamphlet that was critical of Branscomb and the Editorial Board of The Sun.
His emails also shared personal information about students in the journalism program with the Jag Wire. Branscomb said that was the main reason for dismissing Flores from the staff.
“Although I find the anonymous nature of the pamphlet childish and cowardly, I consistently supported the First Amendment rights of the publishers to say whatever they wanted,” he said. “Mr. Flores and members of the publication crossed some red lines, however, and have engaged in potentially criminal activities. I am also very disturbed to learn that a college dean would become involved in this.”
Flores’ handler at the pamphlet wrote long emails praising his work and stoking resentment toward The Sun.
“Your hard work and loyalty have never been appreciated but (The) Sun continues to dangle the carrot in front of you to keep you on the staff,” wrote Flores’ handler. “We think you know the embarrassment that would follow if they fired the JACC President from their own paper and we think that is the only reason you are still there.”
Flores said he confessed to Branscomb on Feb. 25 and apologized for his involvement with the pamphlet and for sharing student information with strangers. Branscomb said he told Flores he would withdraw a letter of recommendation he had written on Flores’ behalf for an SWC scholarship application and would notify JACC that he was no longer a journalism student in good standing. JACC officials immediately suspended Flores and asked him to resign as state student president. He stepped down the next day.
IMPERSONATING AN OFFICER
Flores also admitted that he had created an email account to pose as SWCPD Chief Cash. He used the account, he said, in an attempt to deceive an SDSU band director. Flores, posing as Cash, wrote to SDSU Band Director James Caestecker to inform him that the SWCPD needed Flores to remain at work in his position as a public safety officer and to please forgive his absence from a band performance. Public safety officers are student workers who patrol parking lots and render minor assistance.
Caestecker said he has known Flores for “several years.”
“I received – on I believe January 24th – an email from a Gmail address claiming to be Police Chief Cash and I responded diligently to that email, more or less out of courtesy,” he said. “I thought to myself after I responded that I doubted the authenticity of the email.”
Flores responded with another email, which is when Caestecker said he felt compelled to call the SWCPD to verify that it was from Cash. Caestecker was critical of the SWCPD’s inaccessibility and lack of personnel to handle telephone calls.
“You all have a really sleepy police department,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to be around very much, which, coming from a large university with a well-staffed police department, kind of shocked me.”
Caestecker said he called and left a message with parking services, “which is apparently where the voicemail for the police department goes” and “ended up following up with a phone call the following day” because the SWCPD did not return his original call.
Caestecker said he called again in subsequent weeks and was given several reasons for Cash’s absence.
“It was interesting how long it took them to get back to me when really all they had to do was to verify with Chief Cash that he didn’t have a personal email address that he used for business,” said Caestecker.
The verification process, he said, took almost a month.
Cash issued Flores a termination letter on March 2 and wrote that he had violated California Penal Code 529 by impersonating a police officer. Conviction for violations of Penal Code 529 carries a fine of up to $10,000 and one year in county jail. Flores said his termination by campus police was unrelated to his activities with the Jag Wire and he denied that he was involved in accessing the college’s student records system.
MCCLELLAN A SECRET SOURCE
Flores denied involvement in the recruitment of McClellan by the Jag Wire and said he did not know who her handlers were.
On Feb. 17 McClellan emailed the Jag Wire an invitation to an ASO meeting regarding a review of SWC Procedure 5530 (Student Rights and Grievances) and Procedure 5500 (Standards of Student Conduct). The Sun’s student leadership has complained that McClellan has unfairly and illegally banned reporters and photographers from ASO meetings and, recently, a student grievance hearing where the grievant invited student journalists to witness the hearing. McClellan evicted the student journalists from the hearing and, though the students did not resist, called the campus police. When students returned with the Southwestern College campus policy manual and showed McClellan that student grievants had the right to invite witnesses, she again barred entrance and said the policy was open to “interpretation.”
College President Nish and Vice President of Student Services Dr. Angelica Suarez summoned Branscomb to a meeting in the president’s office to reiterate an earlier promise that journalism students would have “a meaningful role” in crafting a revised policy. Suarez invited the 19-member Editorial Board of The Sun to an ASO Senate meeting ostensibly to discuss the journalism student’s proposed language for the new grievance procedure. Flores unexpectedly attended the meeting, claiming he was there to represent Cash.
Flores later admitted he was actually there to represent the Jag Wire, who had been invited there by McClellan herself, a Feb. 17 email by McClellan confirmed.
“The ASO will be hold (SIC) a special meeting on Tuesday, February 17 at 11:00am in the ASO conference Room,” wrote McClellan. “Procedure 5530 – Student Rights and Grievances and Procedure 5500 – Standards of Student Conduct will be reviewed and recommended changes will be discussed. The SUN editorial board has been invited to provide input to these procedures. I am providing this information, in case this topic is one of interest to you as students.”
When interviewed by Sun reporters, McClellan denied emailing the Jag Wire and communicating with it. She pretended she did not know how to reach them.
“No,” she said. “I mean, how do you approach them? I don’t know. They’re all paper, right?”
McClellan was informed that the pamphlet solicits “juicy leads and scathing letters” by phone and email. “No. Just like, I mean, we work with The Sun through the ASO, same thing,” she said. “I don’t contact you generally, right? And I don’t call you to say, this is happening. So I won’t do the same to them.”
McClellan, despite her denials, had been in contact with the Jag Wire. Her Feb. 17 email invitation to unknown members of the pamphlet led the publishers to write to Flores.
Email Evidence
“We received this email (from) Mia McClellan,” read the Jag Wire email. “We understand you have had issues with her in the past, but want to know if there is anyway that you can attend this meeting without giving yourself up as our ghost writer. Perhaps they are trying to lure us into revealing who we are by showing up. It is for this reason we would need you to show up with as many people as possible to help cover your identity. We need to know what happens at this meeting but can’t afford to let them know who we are just yet. If you decide to attend be very careful.”
Pamphlet publishers also encouraged Flores to lie as needed.
“Don’t Trust anyone Deny Everything,” urged one Jag Wire email to Flores.
Reporters from The Sun asked McClellan why she would contact an anonymous person(s) that could be a dangerous criminal or someone who could jeopardize campus safety.
McClellan replied that The Sun reporters might be dangerous criminals themselves.
“Well yeah, and so could both of you also, right?” she said.
The Sun reporters told McClellan their identities could be verified, but the anonymous person(s) that represents the Jag Wire could not.
“Sure. Absolutely,” she said.
McClellan was asked again why she would contact an anonymous person(s) and invite them to a meeting with Southwestern College students.
“Yeah. Okay. I’ve already given you my response,” she said.
The interview ended minutes later.
Flores replied to the Jag Wire twice to say that he wanted to go to the meeting. “I usually work during that time but I am going to try to get chief cash to let me go during my work hours,” he wrote. Later Flores wrote, “Chief cash asked me to go during my shift so that was an easy cover.”
Reporters from The Sun attempted to arrange an interview with Cash to ask if Flores had attended the meeting during work hours with Cash’s permission. Cash refused multiple interview requests.
ACCESS TO STUDENT RECORDS
Publishers of the pamphlet have the ability to access the Southwestern College student records system and have used that ability to cross check student identification numbers with names to recruit new members and reject others. Flores told Branscomb and reporters from The Sun after he was caught that he had tried to join the pamphlet by using a fake SWC ID number, but was told by Jag Wire contacts that they checked his number and name in the system and the information he provided did not check out. Other students reported similar experiences.
“They asked me my name and student ID number, so whoever it is has access to student IDs,” said Flores. “That could be anyone from financial aid, cashiers, admissions, libraries and (the campus) police department.”
Flores said he never accessed student
records when he worked for the campus police and that he was not involved with breaches of the college computerized records system. He insisted he did not know how Jag Wire publishers were obtaining private information.
An editor from The Sun investigating the pamphlet attempted, as Flores had, to make contact using a made-up SWC student ID number and name. A Jag Wire publisher told the editor the number and name did not match up. No further communication was accepted by the pamphlet.
Flores’ handlers discussed the pamphlet’s ability to enter the college’s system in emails to him. Publishers also wrote about their abilities in the publication itself.
“A journalism student on campus contacted us with a pseudonym and false student ID number, hoping to infiltrate our ranks and write for the Jag Wire,” read a post in the pamphlet.
Branscomb said he immediately shared this information with Nish. He said he also spoke to IT Director Daniel Borges on the phone later that week. Nish said she was concerned about any possible breaches of the student system, Branscomb said, and would direct campus IT professionals to look into it. Borges told Branscomb that there was no evidence the system was hacked, but that it was impossible to know if pamphlet publishers were surreptitiously accessing campus computers with access to the records or getting assistance from an administrator or staff member that had access.
“If somebody is getting into student records that shouldn’t be getting into student records, we want to stop it immediately,” Nish said. “A lot of people have access to student records as a legitimate part of their job, but they also know that they are not to abuse having that ability to have that access.”
Faculty members at Southwestern College and JACC campuses throughout California have also questioned how the pamphlet obtained staff email listserv addresses.
Eric Maag, SWC Professor of Communication, said he first learned of the Jag Wire last semester when an article was written about his involvement with the SWC faculty union. He said he contacted the pamphlet to respond to inaccuracies and misconceptions. Their communication, Maag said, prompted him to question the Jag Wire’s resources.
“It seemed clear to me that they had information from emails that had been sent through the listserv to all faculty or all staff,” he said. “They were speaking to someone beyond just other students.”
Sun reporters tried to contact the anonymous pamphlet by email, text and Twitter for comment, but no response was given.
Flores said he deeply regrets his surreptitious involvement with the pamphlet and sharing private student information with persons he did not know.
“I admit it, I did it,” he said. “I was in a stupid state of mind. I shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t use that as an excuse, either. It’s just a mistake I made and I’m going to fix this.”
Anna Pryor, the editor-in-chief of The Sun, said that the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics requires journalists to police each other. Flores, she said, engaged in unethical behavior while serving at The Sun.
“Rick Flores’ actions were unethical and unacceptable,” Pryor said. “Each semester we learn about the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics and the importance of it. It is unfortunate to see that he would have total disregard for it. Whatever his personal feelings were about the organization or any individuals here, he violated people’s privacy and the law and that is what matters.
“Although it is an embarrassing situation, we would cover this if it had been any other student on campus, so we don’t plan on letting it go unnoticed. Journalism, when done right, is self policing and I hope this is a lesson for Sun students as much as it should be for him.”