I covered my very first breaking news story this semester.
Two Patriot Front decals were found right outside of Framingham State University’s campus center Nov. 3.
It was 4:30 in the afternoon when I was on my way to my Chinese writing class. I ran into my best friend who serves as the Student Government Association’s (SGA) president and our student newspaper, The Gatepost’s, opinions editor. A student had just reported they had found the first one and she was on her way to talk to one of the school’s deans.
She informed me of the situation and I continued outside to get a photo of the decal that was placed on a lamp post.
Of course given our small campus, as I continued making my way to class, I ran into our Editor-in-Chief. I informed him as well and sent the photo to our group chat that includes him, our other associate editor, and the paper’s advisor.
I agreed that I would cover the news of these findings. The problem was it was already Wednesday. We put the paper together Thursday nights.
I finally make it to class when the SGA president tells me she found another.
This isn’t the first time decals from this group were found on our campus. Nine had been found early this year in March - no one was caught.
Following class, I rush to grab dinner - already making a list of who I need to talk to and what to ask them about.
After dinner I go to speak with University Police, but the officer who took the decals down is still working on the report and told me to come back later.
I thought, “Perfect. They’re going to talk to me. Maybe this article won’t be so hard after all.”
However, when I went back down to the station at the time the officer gave me, she informed me she cannot talk to me anymore because it is an ongoing investigation and the chief is not in.
I went back to the newsroom and began emailing everyone I think could be important to this article.
I received few responses that night, but I was still hopeful.
Getting this news out was important. Community members needed to know the whole story of what had occurred.
Little did I know there was more to the story than meets the eye.
The next day I am attending interview after interview in between classes and end up having to skip my two afternoon classes - Thursdays are already my most busy days.
While doing background research, an article found that the Anti-Defamation League reported this group was on our campus in March 2020 handing out leaflets.
As I was working on getting my interviews done I heard something interesting from a student.
Someone was on campus handing out some form of political propaganda Nov. 1 - she had reported them to University Police.
University Police said they did take care of the person who had an unauthorized table set up, but did not take note of who they were or what organization they were with.
Thankfully, the student who called them got videos of the table. However, the videos were taken from the fourth floor of the campus center so it was impossible to read what any of the signs said.
I asked the student to send me the videos and I replayed them over and over until I noticed something.
While University Police were speaking to the person at the table, a student was walking by and stopped to read what the table's sign was - I recognized the student.
It was someone on The Gatepost’s staff who was always wearing the same hat.
I then reached out to them and asked if they were the one in the video. They confirmed and I asked if they knew what the table was and they said it was Turning Point USA.
However, because the University Police did not take note of that there was no way to completely confirm this.
I asked the student how they knew and they told me there was a similar table at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester that their friend had previously sent a photo of.
This wasn’t enough.
I come to the conclusion I’m going to have to forget about Monday’s incident and focus on the matter at hand because the police did not put it in the report and none of the administrators I talked to knew anything about this event or the one that happened in March 2020.
However, hours later that same student messaged me again - “Okay just remembered that I had a picture of the FSU stand.”
And there it was.
Proof another organization with a history of hateful, bigoted, and racist comments was on campus and no one was informed about it.
Following the interviews and research, I was able to begin writing the article around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday - our newspaper copy editing begins at 6:30 p.m.
What I thought was going to be a quick half page story - about 700 words - turned out to be approximately 1,700 words.
I’ve written many articles the day of or the night before a Gatepost meeting, but they were usually meetings that happened last minute.
This article involved a lot of interviews that I had to set up and hope people had time to speak with me.
But I completed it and it became an article I can be proud of - a portfolio piece.
Covering topics such as these are never easy. Not just because it was breaking news, but because this incident was very upsetting for much of the campus.
However, it was an important one that I was able to use all the journalism skills I’ve acquired here at the paper to form a piece that was informative, well-balanced, and timely.
On Dec. 10, the president of FSU sent out an emailing informing the campus eight more Patriot Front decals were found on campus. University Police were able to capture the person on camera. There is now a $5,000 award out for anyone who can provide information that will lead to their arrest.
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