WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1896 www.thesunflower.com
Feb. 1 , 2024
Volume 128 Issue 18
FOR THE RECORD
Documentary on Marion County raid screening tonight at Wichita State BY TALIYAH WINN
assistantnews@thesunflower.com
A
documentary about how law enforcement raided a local newspaper and how it led to the death of a local journalist will be screened on Wichita State campus on Feb. 1. The Wichita Eagle’s documentary, “Unwarranted: The Senseless Death of Journalist Joan Meyer,” explores an attack on First and Fourth Amendment rights by law enforcement. Last August in Marion, Kansas, the police department raided the Marion County Record, the local newspaper, and the home of 98-year-old Joan Meyer, longtime owner/reporter, who died a day later. Eric Meyer, the son of Joan and editor of the Marion Record, was there with his mother during the raid. He said he appreciated the documentary’s coverage. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful compilation of things and captures my mother’s spirit fairly accurately,” Eric said. “It’s a very accurate portrayal of what went on.” The documentary screening will also include a panel, featuring Eric, the documentary producers Jaime Green and Travis Heying, and Emily Bradbury,
executive director of the Kansas Press Association. Green, the visuals editor at the Wichita Eagle, said that she was drawn to tell Joan’s story after she read the obituary Carrie Rengers wrote on Aug. 14. “But of course, to tell her story, you have to tell what happened to her on Aug. 11,” Green said. The documentary features bodycam footage of the raid, centering on Joan and what occurred the day before her passing. “It just pays homage to Joan Meyer, who ran a newspaper from 1953 until the time of her death at age 98,” Heying, a photojournalist at the Eagle, said. “And she was good. She was a good small-town journalist. She didn’t deserve to die the way she did.” Green and Heying worked closely together during the filming of the documentary, where they spent months swapping a hard drive back and forth and spending hours together working on edits. Heying said Green made sure to keep Joan’s part of the story alive. “I want them to get a sense of who Joan was and why what she did for the community was so important,” Green said. The documentary will be shown at the CAC Theater, on the southwest side of the Rhatigan Student Center Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Illustration by Thy Vo / The Sunflower
The Marion County Record published a story about Kari Newell, a local restaurant owner, who accused the paper of illegally obtaining public records.
Journalist Joan Meyer died. Meyer’s obituary was published by Carrie Rengers.
A search warrant was signed by Magistrate Judge Laura Viar at 9 a.m. allowing law enforcement to search and seize information that the Record has. The police raid the house of Joan Meyer and the Marion County Record’s office later that day.
Gideon Cody, chief of police in Marion, is suspended.
Michael Roehrman, an executive editor at the Wichita Eagle, saw the obituary and was drawn to tell Joan’s story. Jaime Green began work on the documentary.
Gideon Cody resigned.
Travis Heying joined the filmmaking process after Green downloaded eight hours of bodycam footage. Bodycam footage of the raid was released to the media.
“Unwarranted: The Senseless Death of Journalist Joan Meyer” was released.
Special election appealed, Student Supreme Court suspends certification of results BY COURTNEY BROWN
newsprojects@thesunflower.com
The Student Government Association (SGA) has received a formal appeal of the special election where students voted to remove at-large senator seats while increasing college-based seats. The Student Supreme Court justices voted 4-0 to accept the case and placed an injunction on the formal certification of the Senate Seat Reapportionment Act, which was initially intended to occur on Friday, Jan. 26. The appeal, submitted by former SGA Sen. Vishnu Avva, argues that passing the Senate Seat Reapportionment Act is unconstitutional because the special election did not have 7% of students vote. Only 2.5% of the student body participated. According to Article IX of SGA’s Constitution, a Constitutional amendment passes if it receives “a simple majority of votes” in an election. Article IX further states that a constitutional amendment
“submitted in referendum” only goes into effect when passed with 7% of students voting in an election. Based on public hearing statements, Avva and Jay Thompson, the government oversight chairperson and primary author of the Senate Seat Reapportionment Act, hold different views of what “referendum” means in the Constitution. Avva claims that based on the article’s context, “election” and “referendum” are used interchangeably within this section; Avva’s interpretation would mean all constitutional amendments would need at least 7% of the student body to vote and not just a simple majority of votes. In his appeal, Avva also argues that passing the Senate Seat Reapportionment Act violates SGA’s bylaws based on Article IX, which states a constitutional amendment with a majority vote will be passed if it meets “the minimum number of votes” stated in the Constitution. Avva claims that this means every constitutional amendment only passes if there is 7% voter
participation. Prior to Avva’s appeal, SGA Adviser Gabriel Fonseca confirmed with The Sunflower in an email that since this Constitutional amendment was brought up in the Senate, it only needs a simple majority vote.
SUPREME COURT PUBLIC HEARING The Student Supreme Court convened for the first time in the school year at 7 p.m. on Jan. 30 to hear Avva’s appeal against last week’s special election process. Avva reiterated the main arguments written in his appeal. “I’m here arguing not against the amendment itself, but against the process in which it was passed,” Avva said. Thompson, who is also the government oversight chairperson, argued that the Senate Seat Reapportionment Act had been passed constitutionally. Thompson emphasized that there are two ways to pass a constitutional amendment, and he argues that the 7% voter participation does
Chief Justice Maureen Wetta asks Vishnu Avva to present his claim to the Student Supreme Court. | Photo by Allison Campbell / The Sunflower
not apply to amendments introduced in the Senate. According to Thompson, amendments originating in the Senate require two-thirds of Student Senate votes and a majority of student body votes. Thompson said his interpretation is “supported by historical precedent,” listing several constitutional amendments that passed with less than 7% voter turnout. In his closing statement, Avva said that historical precedent does not necessarily make the process constitutional. “If a criminal gets away with his
crime who finally gets caught, are those crimes okay?” Avva said. Thompson said in his closing statement that he found it disrespectful to assume a “small group of senators and one president could install tyranny with power grabs.” Following the public hearing, the Court will decide whether the special election results are constitutional. On Jan. 31 at 7:26 p.m., Fonseca emailed The Sunflower that the Supreme Court will announce its decision on Thursday, Feb. 1.