Florida Atlantic U. Disciplines Student Journalist for Practicing Journalism
Florida Atlantic University is clearly doing everything it can to reinforce its reputation as the worst place to attend college.
The Student Press Law Center reports.
Florida college punishes student reporter for failing to leave suicide scene
FLORIDA — Dylan Bouscher, editor-in-chief of Florida Atlantic University’s newspaper, the University Press, was surprised to be summoned to his school’s student conduct office earlier this month and hit with four disciplinary charges related to refusing a police order to leave a crime scene.
“I don’t believe I was near a crime scene or on a crime scene,” he said.
Bouscher had been driving the newspaper’s golf cart near the site of a suicide on campus last month, he said, and had hung around trying to get information and photos for his story until an officer yelled at him to leave.
FAU police officer Robert Vickens said Bouscher approached on foot even after being ordered to leave.
“I halted the golf cart and advised Bouscher and (a passenger) that they were within the boundaries of the crime scene, and lawfully ordered them to leave immediately,” Vickens said in his report.
Bouscher says he was on public ground and doesn’t believe he did anything wrong, but on Tuesday he accepted two charges in order to have another two dismissed. He said he compromised because he was concerned he might face criminal repercussions if he did not and also because he wanted to protect his newspaper from future disruption from the university.
He said the student conduct office asked for the name of a student reporter who was in the golf cart with him, but he declined to give her name to them.
A representative from FAU’s communications office said the office would not comment on Bouscher’s case because it’s confidential under FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
Florida college punishes student reporter for failing to leave suicide scene (The Student Press Law Center)