Article causes premature close of Loco’s: Student employees wanted one more night

Dear Editor,

Your motto on your Web site proclaims you are a paper for the students, written by the students. If so, you have violated this ideal with last week’s article on the premature closure of Loco’s.

You wrote of 25 students losing their jobs due to the closure of the business. By printing your article, you cost half of those students another day on their paychecks. These students depended on that restaurant to pay their way through school. It is bad enough that they lost their jobs, but then you had to take their last day together and their last day of employment away from them.

I don’t know how it is working at the newspaper, but I would venture to say that the students who work there have developed a vibe that is unique and helps motivate you to work hard. An atmosphere that reminds you every day you are part of something you enjoy. Imagine, if you will, the newspaper was being shutdown, and you had planned a final bang to celebrate the time and effort you had put in. Maybe a final edition with articles you had all written from your heart, things that meant something to you, a last chance to show what you were all about. Then someone takes that away from you with a poorly written and researched idea. You didn’t stop once to think about what you were doing.

Your article violated some of the most basic elements of journalism. You had no sources close to the story, your quotes all having come from a worker who lasted less than a month at Loco’s and hasn’t been back there in nearly two months. A worker who did not like the restaurant business and couldn’t keep up with the fast-paced work the other employees handled with ease. Your entire story was based on rumor, assumption and a faulty source. I’m not sure what you are aspiring to as journalists, but this is a step in the wrong direction – one that cost a group of hardworking individuals their last day on their paychecks and their last chance to celebrate the time they had shared.

Your article forced the closure of Loco’s a day early and closed a chapter prematurely in those kids’ lives. They only wanted one last night to go all out, together, and have a good time. In addition to that, you cost them valuable hours on the clock. I hope the next time you choose to print an article concerning students, you choose to have some concern for the students you are writing about.

Thank you for your time,
John Robert Hurley
Proud to have been a Loco’s Line Cook

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 7 2005. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry