A security guard at Fanshawe College was caught on video surveillance cameras throwing copies of a controversial issue of the Interrobang in the garbage, while over a thousand copies of the student newspaper are still left unaccounted for.

After a weekly audit of the paper's distribution and circulation, Manager of the Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) Publications Department John Said said that 20 of the papers 28 distribution boxes, which hold 3,000 papers on a weekly basis, located at various points around campus were completely empty.

“Historically when it comes to our publication, we know how papers are picked up in certain areas, when we did an audit of our circulation after we found some inconsistencies with our distribution that week, we found that most of our boxes on campus were empty before they normally would be,” remarked Said. “I had a couple of theories for the reasoning behind it, but we did learn that our distribution of that paper was compromised.”

Upon review of the surveillance tape, Fanshawe security discovered that an on-duty Fanshawe security guard, employed by Stinson Security Services, was seen on camera taking and disposing of Interrobang newspapers at two distribution boxes on campus in the hallway where the College Bookstore is located on the morning of Sunday February 18.

“We located a security officer that removed about 50 to 60 Interrobang papers,” said Ed Pimentel, manager of security services at the College.

According to security, upon several interviews with the security officer the reasoning that the officer gave for taking and disposing of the newspapers was to stop other individuals from using the newspapers to prop open doors on campus.

“At that time period we were having a lot of issues with access control and what was happening was individuals were using the papers and propping open some of the doors,” Pimentel said, even though he admitted that there was no video surveillance to support that statement.

“The area in front of the College Bookstore where there is videotape of a security guard disposing of papers also happens to be a main entrance point into the College,” said Said. “At the time the guard threw those 50-60 papers away in that area the doors there were unlocked. I see no reason why anyone would've needed to prop open an already unlocked door.”

When the FSU got word of the situation, a letter written by FSU President Christine Thomson on March 5 was sent to Vice President of Planning and Administrative Services of the College, Bernice Hull, expressing the FSU's desire to hold a meeting regarding the situation.

Subsequently, a meeting took place March 19, with FSU representatives in attendance, as well as Pimentel and the President of Stinson Security Services, Dave Stinson.

According to Said, the FSU was not satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and the rationale given by security for disposing of the newspapers.

“Security is admitting to removing 50 to 60 papers and that really is not good enough when we know our distribution had been compromised,” Said said. “Some of it might be speculative on our part, however when you take the whole situation into account and with the evidence that we do have, I feel you can build a fairly strong circumstantial case that says maybe there is more to this then just the 50 to 60 papers.”

Business Manager of the FSU Paul Masse said the approximate direct cost of the 1,500-2,000 Interrobang newspapers that were taken around campus totaled $7,000, which included printing, delivery and distribution costs, as well as advertising revenue.

Pimentel said that security is not taking this situation lightly and would reimburse the FSU for the 50 or 60 newspapers that are seen being taken on tape, but would not take responsibility for the other missing papers.

“When you are dealing with an incident that deals with work performance and in this case it is not a criminal matter, you have to be sensitive to the fact that you have to basically deal with facts, you have to deal with something that is concrete,” Pimentel said.

“We interviewed the security officer many times, he provided a statement in writing, and I have no reason to disbelieve him. So having said that, there is no other evidence to suggest otherwise,” added Pimentel. “He made the decision that if there are no papers around then no one can prop open the doors, at the end of the day it was a poor judgment call on his part. There was some talk of it being theft, and I resent that, you cannot steal something that is free, but nevertheless it was a poor judgment call and he was dealt with accordingly.”

Pimentel was asked what the security officer's punishment was and declined to comment, noting that the officer is not a direct employee of the security department at the College. According to Pimentel, Fanshawe security manages the contract between Stinson Security Services and the College, while Stinson Security deals with all employee issues internally.

President of Stinson Security Services, Dave Stinson did not return Interrobang phone calls by press deadline.

The cover story in the February 19 issue of the Interrobang titled, “Student arrested after Career Fair protest” contained information regarding the treatment of Fanshawe student Darius Mirshahi by Fanshawe security.

Pimentel said that the subject matter of the aforementioned article crossed his mind initially when questioning the security officer, who was caught on video taking the newspapers.

“Was it in the back of our minds? It could have been,” Pimentel said. “No one was offended [with] that particular issue. We did what we did, and we did it legally, lawfully and so be it, if people want to write in and complain about something then that is their prerogative, but no we were not sensitive to that issue.”

Thomson said that the FSU is not happy about the situation but is not sure what else can be done to solve it.

“We have never had this many papers go missing before in the 30 year history of the paper and we didn't catch anyone else, whether it was a student, or faculty, or community member taking papers in any other places. So people will draw their own conclusions,” Thomson said. “We are not satisfied, but we are not sure how much farther we can take it since we had the meeting that was supposed to be solving it, and unfortunately we did not solve anything. So, I don't know what other avenues we can pursue right now.”