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Student newspaper editors at Arizona State University backtracked on a statement issued a week ago when they fired an opinion columnist for her controversial tweets.

Editors of The State Press removed Alexia Isais from her position on Sept. 17, the same day she tweeted statements they interpreted as advocating violence against the police. They had released an initial statement, but deleted it on Thursday. 

The vagueness of the initial statement created an inaccurate representation of the situation, according to a Twitter post by The State Press on Thursday.

“We also apologize for the pain that the statement caused for many individuals and organizations,” the post said.

Isais’ firing drew backlash from student and community groups, which called for a boycott of the student newspaper. Many saw her dismissal as The State Press silencing a leftist woman of color.

Isais told The Arizona Republic on Friday that she was feeling “pretty victorious” about that statement being taken down. She said more needs to be done to repair the newspaper’s relationship with the community.

“I feel like State Press realized now that they made a mistake that not only impacted me but impacted the community that I represent and the communities that I write about in my articles,” she said.

While feeling better about the situation, Isais said “we are a little bit cautious because we aren’t sure about what State Press is officially going to do.”

She added: “Feeling the victory will only come when I’m reinstated and the other demands are met.” 

The State Press post noted the matter is not over. “We will continue to have conversations inside and outside of our organization to move forward in the most thoughtful, impactful way,” according to the post.

Student’s tweets get reaction

The controversy began when Isais took to Twitter on Sept. 17 after receiving a Blue Alert on her phone, which meant there was an attack on a law enforcement officer and the suspect posed a threat to the public or other law enforcement personnel.

The alert came after officials said a 17-year-old boy shot at an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper in Phoenix.

Isais tweeted that the phone alert was making her serotonin kick in, seeming to imply she was happy officers were in danger. Another tweet said “police aren’t actually human” and “they can all go fall into the abyss and society would be better without them.”

State Press editors Adrienne Dunn, Andrew Howard and Joseph Perez responded quickly, issuing the since-deleted statement announcing Isais had been fired and her tweets did not represent The State Press’ opinions or values.

Isais and community groups spoke out against that statement, and editors clarified with a more detailed letter the next day.

Isais told The Republic she found that first statement defamatory, saying it was wrong to imply she was advocating for an entire group of people to be harmed or killed.

She asked The State Press to rescind what she saw as a vague and damaging statement.

The State Press wrote in a tweet that the statement was deleted “in an effort to minimize harm for Isais as well as the other individuals and communities who were pained by the statement.”

Discussions to further resolve the situation are ongoing, Dunn and Isais said.

Isais has asked The State Press to give her the position back as a “symbolic measure” to help repair ties. Isais said she would appreciate the gesture, but that she does not intend to return.

A GoFundMe campaign launched on her behalf after she was fired has raised nearly $800, which Isais said is more money than The State Press stipend she would have received.

Dunn said The State Press is discussing its next steps. 

The State Press has temporarily stopped publishing opinion columns as editors reevaluate the purpose of the section and recruit diverse writers to represent a range of views. 

Two opinion columnists resigned shortly after Isais’ removal.

Community groups rally around Isais

The day after Isais’ removal, about 20 ASU and community affinity groups signed on to a boycott and demand letter to The State Press.

In addition to campus groups, prominent community organizations including Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro and Poder in Action signed on to the letter.

The letter criticized The State Press for silencing an opinion columnist and contributing to discrimination against women and people of color by firing Isais.

“With the broader Black Lives Matter movement in the background, it’s revolting to see publications persecute their own opinion columnists during such a polarizing time,” the letter reads.

Isais’ tweet “was referencing an overall strong sentiment in favor of abolishing the police, it was not meant to be misinterpreted as an actual threat against any one,” the letter says. 

The letter draws comparisons to another recent incident involving an ASU student media outlet. Rae’Lee Klein, the student manager of Blaze Radio, expressed an unpopular viewpoint among the group, prompting backlash and her peers sidelining her from leading the organization.

Klein’s situation has continued on for almost four weeks without formal action, while Isais was fired the same day, the community letter says. 

“Even if Klein and Isais’ employers are different from one another and may not be related — they are both journalistic employment positions at ASU,” the letter says. 

ASU has noted that The State Press is operated by students outside the oversight of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, while Cronkite does oversee Blaze Radio. State Press editors have the authority to fire students; Blaze Radio leaders do not. 

Dunn, The State Press editor, told The Republic she acknowledges that many marginalized communities have not been accurately represented in media in the past. The State Press has been actively working on outreach and more diverse voices, she said.

“We entirely understand and respect the boycott, and we hope that we will be able to move forward to a point where we can accurately represent their voices in the media because that’s what we want to do, both in terms of who is on our staff and in our work,” Dunn said.

The signing groups said they will boycott The State Press — by not responding to press inquiries or reading articles — until Isais is reinstated and other demands met.

“While the following organizations may not whole heartedly agree with Isais’s former tweets, we want the State Press to respect the opinions of their so called ‘opinion columnists,'” the letter says.

Aniyah Braveboy, president of the Black African Coalition at ASU, said her group joined the boycott to support Isais, who had been a “great ally” as a columnist in terms of getting out their message.

“As the BAC, we support people that broadcast and voice their own oppressions and suppressions,” she said.

Isais was fired too quickly and publicly, Braveboy said, for tweets she does not believe encourage violence. The BAC was already in a rough patch with The State Press about an article saying police should be thanked instead of defunded, Braveboy said. 

“We already were not supporting The State Press, and then for this to happen to Alexia — it was at this point, how much do they really care for those underrepresented and colored communities at ASU?” she said. “As the president of the BAC, I want to protect our voices and what we have been fighting so hard for. I don’t want us to continue to support people that genuinely do not support us.”

Braveboy said she wants The State Press to offer Isais her job back, to hire more people of color and to revisit their social media guidelines. 

Were the tweets advocating harm?

In the aftermath of her firing, Isais has stood by the meaning of her tweets. She said she deleted them because they were worded “unprofessionally,” and her Twitter bio had included The State Press.

Isais said she does not believe her tweets were supporting violent action.

But, she said strong speech against police is justified. 

“I think I have the right to express a violent sentiment towards an inherently violent, oppressive system, and that’s the system of the police,” Isais told The Republic. “Everything that you do against the police is going to be seen as violent. If you stand up to them, if you punch them, if they’re pushing you, all that’s being violent. I support the right to fight back against oppressors.”

Isais said her tweet about police not being human was meant that police aren’t a class or group in society, but rather they can take off their badges and stop being police at any time.

“It’s an incredibly strange situation the way that The State Press warped that to mean violence, because it’s definitely not what I intended in the tweet,” she said.  

The State Press has said Isais was not fired for her anti-police views, her speech or her identity, but because they say the tweets promoted harm toward a person and because the public tweets could endanger the newspaper and its staff. Any student member would have been fired for such comments, regardless of the subject, according to editors.

“While we understand the sentiment behind the tweet comes from a place of real pain that shouldn’t be ignored, we didn’t remove her because of those views or because of that experience,” Dunn said. “We removed her because our organization has standards — standards that have been clearly communicated and standards that we should uphold.”

Dunn said the standards that Isais violated are The State Press’ social media guidelines and ethics guidelines that are reviewed at the start of each semester.

In the aftermath of the situations with Klein and Isais, The State Press is reevaluating some of those standards, Dunn said. 

Editor’s note: Adrienne Dunn, The State Press executive editor, is an intern at The Arizona Republic.

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or at 602-444-4282. Follow her on Twitter @alisteinbach.

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