Julia Skeval (pictured above in her early years) lost her cool and had to be let go, despite being one of The Lamron’s finest reporters.
Editor-in-Chief Julia Skeval was fired from her position on The Lamron last Wednesday. Skeval had published an article clearly defaming another Geneseo student and intern from the Office of Sustainability.
Early this school year, an opinion article was published about the lack of recycling and composting bins on campus. Several days later, a poster with the locations of compost bins on campus was hung on the door to The Lamron office in the MacVittie College Union. In addition, “do your research before publishing!!” was also written on the poster.
Recently, The Lamron staff discovered the name of the intern who hung the poster. No action was taken by Geneseo’s administration or the Office of Sustainability. Skeval also had meetings with Director of the Office of Sustainability Dan DeZarn, and The Lamron published a news article detailing the office’s efforts of making Geneseo a more sustainable campus.
Skeval said that “The Lamron had done everything right, yet the intern was barely reprimanded.” Therefore, she took matters into her own hands.
Skeval wrote and published an article on The Lamron website a couple of weeks ago. Everything she wrote was a blatant attack on the student and was not protected under the First Amendment due to libel.
The student, who requested their name be withheld due to “fear students would attack them because of the blatant lies,” was considering pursuing a libel case due to the harm to their reputation.
The article has since been removed from the website. Other Lamron staff members were unaware of Skeval’s actions. Since the editorial board was unsure about what to do, they went to talk to advisor of The Lamron and assistant professor of rhetorical communication Lee Pierce.
After discussions with the student, Geneseo’s administration and DeZarn, Pierce removed Skeval from the position to avoid action being taken against The Lamron.
“I loved Julia. She has done an amazing job this year, but I couldn’t believe that she had written an article that was disrespectful to a student,” Pierce said. “It was either let the entire newspaper get sued or remove Julia.”
The student agreed to the solution and will not be pressing charges against The Lamron since Skeval was fired.
The Lamron editorial board was split about the decision. Some felt that Skeval had gone too far, while others were proud that she protected her staff so fiercely. The Lamron will continue publishing for many years to come.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Skeval said. “Pierce made a mistake firing me because I was protecting my writers and staff, but I’m glad I’m leaving knowing that The Lamron will continue on.”
Disclaimer: This is a satirical piece