Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 17:09:07 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevyn Jacobs To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" Subject: UDK: Students protest UDK's printing of Moore story FROM THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS - LAWRENCE APRIL 7, 1995 FRONT PAGE ================================ STUDENTS PROTEST PRINTING OF KANSAN STORY Three REAL members part of paper dumping at Stauffer-Flint Hall PHOTO: Students throwing bundles of papers into a pile as Police officers stand by CAPTION: Behind the back of KU police officer Richard Avery, REAL coalition Student Senate candidate Terry Huerter heaves a stack of The University Daily Kansan onto a pile near Stauffer-Flint Hall. Huerter and REAL coalition Student Senate candidate Ana Calderon, pictured carrying newspapers, joined several others yesterday in protest of the newspaper's decision to run a front-page story on Eric Moore, Lawrence sophomore, who withdrew from the Student Senate election on Wednesday. By Eduardo A. Molina Kansan staff writer Six students, two of whom were members of Student Senate and three of whom were members of the REAL coalition, yesterday staged a protest of The University Daily Kansan by dumping hundreds of Kansans on the lawn in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall, where the Kansan offices are. The students were upset by yesterday's front-page story about Eric Moore, Lawrence sophomore, who on Wednesday announced that he was resigning as director of LesBiGay Services of Kansas and withdrawing as a member of the REAL coalition for Student Senate because he had tested positive for the HIV virus. In the story, it was revealed that Moore had in 1990 pleaded no contest to charges of aggravated indecent solicitation of a child under the age of 12. He was sentenced to one to five years in the Ellsworth Correctional Facility in Ellsworth. Stevie Case, residential senator and candidate with the REAL coalition, said the group was protesting the decision to print Moore's criminal record. "We would like to see more journalistic integrity," Case said. "A lot of assumptions were made without the input of the person involved. This story is destroying one person's life." Kansan editor Steve Martino said the Kansan made numerous attempts throughout the day to contact Moore but that he did not respond. Ami Hizer, student senator, said it was the group's right to dump the newspapers. "This is First Amendment, guys," she said. "This is not censorship because we are not destroying the papers. Students can take them from here." But Tom Eblen, general manager of the Kansan, didn't agree with Hizer's interpretation of the First Amendment. "This is simple theft," Eblen said He said that every student was entitled to a Kansan because a small portion of student fees went to support the Kansan. Eblen said that the Kansan had asked the Douglas County district attorney to take appropriate action on the case. Hizer said the paper dumping was supported by Student Senate. "This doesn't have to do with coalitions or elections," she said. But Sherman Reeves, student body president, said Senate had nothing to do with the incident. "It wasn't that we were not aware that this was happening," he said. "But these people acted on their own. We were not a part of it." The other four students involved in the incident were Terry Huerter, Lake Quivira sophomore and candidate with REAL, Ana Calderon, a Nunemaker senator candidate with the REAL coalition, Lindsay Sander, a member of finance committee, and Ted Fleming, Topeka freshman. During the incident, KU police talked to the students and told them that they were littering. The officers instructed the students to put the papers in the recycling bin in front of Stauffer-Flint, and they complied. Later, some members of the Kansan news and advertising staffs took the papers from the bin and put them back into distribution boxes around campus.