One-on-One Interview with Potomac Falls Grad Katie Hibson: JMU Student Journalists Caught in Controversy

VivaLoudoun.com editor Dan Sousa remembers covering Katie Hibson when she was an academic and athletic standout at Potomac Falls High School so he has followed with interest her thrust into the media spotlight after a run-in with the James Madison University administration while covering a story a week ago for the student newspaper. Dan caught up with Katie via phone this afternoon and got the background on her story. After he interviewed her it was learned that the university is going ahead with judicial charges against Hibson and a fellow reporter including trespassing and disorderly conduct. A judicial meeting with the students has been scheduled at JMU for Nov. 5. Note to James Madison University administration: you may want to Google Mr. Madison as we think he might have been involved with something called the "Bill of Rights" that guarantees the freedom of the press!

Harrisonburg (Oct. 27, 2009) - Potomac Falls High School grad Katie Hibson said her sudden thrust into the media spotlight took her by surprise.

"The first day it was kind of cool with TV crews coming around and being on the front page o the local newspaper," said the James Madison sophomore who has been judicially charged with two counts of trespassing and a count of disorderly conduct while interviewing fellow students at a Dukes dorm after a "peeping tom" incident.

It has been more than a week and the incident has gone from regional to national with the Associated Press picking up the story.

"After the first day, it started getting kind of old," said Hibson. "It is taking up must of my day. I can't get anything done."

And the part about being interviewed instead of doing the interviews?

"It's very surreal ... I'm not sure I like it," said Hibson.

What really concerns Hibson is that all the press and attention is going to the charges against her and editor Tim Chapman, when not a lot of "ink" (or pixels if you will) is being spilt over the actual breakin.

"A man broke into the dorm and all the press is going to us," said Hibson. "They should be looking to catch this guy. I think the priorities are out of line."

So how did Hibson, who is concentrating in journalism in the School of Media Arts and Design and looking to  also get into the School of Communications so she can get a double major with a focus on public relations, land in the middle of what some are calling a clear First Amendment issue.

She walked me through the timeline ...

"At first I said 'I'm sick, try someone else'," said Hibson, but the editor called back and asked for a couple of quotes and Hibson, the team player who played basketball at Potomac Falls as well as trying her hand at softball and lacrosse, went to the dorm.

Hibson did not sneak into the dorm, which would have been against school policy, but was invited in by a girl who happend to live in the hall where the peeping tom incident reportedly took place.

In the hall for about 15 minutes and never more than 15 feet away from her dorm "escort" -- the policy of the school is that if you don't live in a dorm you can only visit with an escort who lives in that dorm -- when a Resident Assistant came up and asked Hibson: "Do you have a right to be here."

Hibson was escorted out and after calling the newspaper, their legal advisor told the journalists that the RA was mistaken and that they were within school policy to be inside the dorm while invited.

So Hibson, along with Editor-in-Chief Tim Chapman of Chantilly, Va., returned to the dorm and this time with another staff member ... who lived in the dorm so, once again, they were escorted.

They knocked on the RA's door and told her of the legal advisors opinion and the RA said that the Hall Director had been phoned and that the student journalists were not welcome inside the dorm. It went back and forth and the dorm staff said they were going to call the police.

By this time, Hibson had all the interviews she needed for the story and she and Chapman "left quietly" ... no police, no university officials ... only to get an email several days later stating that Hibson was being judicially charged with two counts of trespassing, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of noncompliance with an official request.

(yes, Virginia, in 2009 ... there is a university that has a rule on the books called "noncompliance with an official request", even though that sounds like a line out of the novel 1984 ... assuming an official makes an unreasonable request, and you ignore it, BAM, you are in violation!)

Where does the irony end? James Madison University, named after one of the founding fathers, who is credited with writing the Bill of Rights is pursuing these charges against student journalists, who in good faith were advised that they were within the school rules, and were clearly, by any definition, within their first amendment rights as journalists.

Or how about Hibson being involved in this controversy as she is from a family that owes its very history to JMU as both her mom and dad met at the school and became married! She clearly is not a student with a axe to grind but caught up in a web of perhaps, one could argue overzealous reporting (the second trip to the dorm triggered the charges as we doubt trespassing charges would have been brought after the first run-in), but certainly caught up in a James Madison University PR nightmare.

If the university wanted to not call attention to the "peeping tom" incident, then bringing the initial charges was a misstep and to continue with the charges, after legal opinion is tilting clearly in the favor of the student journalists -- and from JMU professors no less! -- is simply stubborn folly. And at a time with impressionable high school seniors and their families are contemplating which colleges to apply to ... not the best time for the Harrisonburg school to acquire a PR shiner.

Before it was learned that the university would indeed continue with the charges, Hibson held hope for a quick end to the conflict, especially as her parents were worried. This is after all, a true purple and gold family.

"My parents met here at JMU! My entire family goes to JMU," said Hibson. "This could have serious ramifications for my college career."