Update (April 16): Bryan College student newspaper editor Alex Green recently earned the University of Oregon’s 2013 Ancil Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism for his decision to self-publish a story about a biblical studies professor after school officials spiked the article last fall.
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In a press freedom flap that reflects collegiate sensitivities following the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal at Penn State University, a Christian college in Tennessee attempted to stop student newspaper editors from publishing a story about a biblical studies professor who resigned after being arrested in an FBI sting this summer on charges of attempted child molestation.
Now, following a windfall of media attention, Bryan College president Stephen Livesay says the Dayton school may have been mistaken when it asked editor Alex Green to hold a story with details on former professor David Morgan, who resigned in July.
In a statement posted on the college’s website, Livesay responded to the incident: “In hindsight, this may have been a mistake. We believed we were doing the right thing to protect the privacy of a man charged, but not convicted, of a crime.”
Green decided to publish the story himself in fliers around campus this week, including a sidebar column raising questions about how to break sex-abuse stories in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State. In that column, Green wrote, “Printing this story will not cause a Penn State situation for Bryan. I believe it will prevent one. … ‘We are Penn State’ was their approach. ‘Christ above all’ is ours.”
