While jumping on the urge to publish this seemingly “interesting” article for all of the campus to read may have seemed like your duty as the press, I urge you to stop and think about what you have done here. Right now, our campus is buzzing about two of our fellow students sitting in jail as if it is the hottest gossip of the week without giving any consideration to the severity of the situation. This situation is in fact, extremely serious, yet you have treated it as a circulating scandal about which we can all get excited reading. 

One of my favorite aspects about being a part of the student body at Berry is that we’re a small community, a community that is supposed to stick together and support each other. This special characteristic of our school should not disappear when times become difficult and uncomfortable. I’ll admit that I am not the most educated on the “duties” of the press, but shame on you. You have given this entire campus the implication that these two girls are guilty without giving them any opportunity to defend themselves or their already ruined reputation. Buddy and Critter Dawsey are two of the sweetest girls on this campus, and I find it disgusting that you as the journal on campus have jumped on the chance to destroy that for them. 

Last time I checked, we are all innocent until proven guilty. We don’t know the full story of what has happened with their legal situation, though your article makes it seem as though you have the inside scoop. The truth of the matter is that you have no idea how this happened with this family. These girls could be completely innocent for all you or I know, but thanks to your disgraceful article the majority of the campus is already biased into thinking they’re guilty of the crimes they have been charged with. Should they be convicted, you have prevented most of our student body from understanding the purpose of a trial. Should they be proven innocent, you have ruined their previously positive presence on campus, and that idea makes me feel sick just thinking about it. It may be your “duty” as the press to make us aware of current issues, but I don’t see names or yearbook pictures of people discussed within the “Police Beat” column. If it’s truly my right to know absolutely everything, where’s the picture of the person who was busted with a marijuana violation in Poland on November 8? How dare you put even more negative focus on Buddy and Critter than has already been imposed on them by publishing their photos on the front page. This is not fair to them in the slightest, and I feel guilty even looking at it; I can’t imagine how you as the author must feel about what you have done to them. 

I realize you cannot take back the article that has been published. Unfortunately, that damage has been done. My purpose in contacting you is not to be hateful, nor to vent my frustrations, but rather to express my response in hopes that you will learn from this mistake. Essentially, the article and your actions not as the campus press, but as other fellow Berry students, make me very sad. I hope that you as the author can come to terms with the consequences of your actions, and find a way to make this right.

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Lauren Logan, Senior