On Jan. 21, the first day of the spring semester, a body was found in Parking Lot 2 on the Cuesta College campus. One hour after hearing the news, Cuestonian staff member Lindsay Mckee and I headed over to campus to speak to law enforcement. While we were there, the body of the deceased was still in their vehicle with no covering or privacy from the public eye. Since the news was released to Cuesta staff a few hours prior, I did not expect the body to still be on campus or even visible to the public. The campus police department was at the scene and McKee and I had the chance to speak to Officer Jesse Herring. While the conversation was short, there was limited information at the time besides the fact that foul play was not suspected. That same night, while respecting the family and friends of the individual, we wrote a news brief about the situation and it went live on January 23.
McKee and I continued to follow up with the Cuesta PD, SLO County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Tony Cipolla, and Cuesta Associate Director of Marketing and Communications Ritchie Bermudez. McKee and I also went to the SLO Sheriff’s office to see if we could obtain any additional information, to no avail. Former Cuesta Chief of Police Rich Randolph, with hesitancy, was only able to tell us that the individual was a Cuesta College student.
After weeks of reaching out constantly, Tony Cipolla has failed to answer any of our phone calls. Bermudez, after contacting him multiple times via phone and email, only replied once. Cuesta PD has repeatedly been uncommunicative, and most importantly, President Jill Stearns has failed to provide students with any such correspondence to ensure that her students are okay or provide them with any closure on the matter. It’s honestly quite appalling. However, I was able to reach out to Stearns on March 13 with a few questions on the topic. While she did get back to me only via email, her responses left me with more questions.
When asked, “Are there any updates on the death that occurred on campus on Jan. 21? For example, has a cause of death been identified?,” Stearns responded, “I do not have any information on the cause of death.” That I do believe; I believe she doesn’t know what really happened. However, McKee has reached out to the sheriff’s office and requested public records. They said that a cause of death has not been determined and a toxicology report hasn’t been verified. That I do not believe.
I also asked Stearns: “Faculty and staff were notified immediately after the death. However, to our knowledge, there was no statement issued to students. Why?” She responded with: “There was no danger to the campus community. If the situation had posed any danger or disruption to campus activity, students would have received notice. We regularly have EMS respond to campus and use the same criteria in determining what, if any, communication is sent. This is a very rare occurrence on campus and our priority was first protecting the privacy of the individual and then respecting the wishes of the family.”
I’m very disappointed with the lack of transparency being provided to students, faculty and staff on the matter.
Furthermore, even though there wasn’t a “danger” to the campus community, an email saying something about the incident, sending condolences to family and friends and providing information to mental health services would’ve been considerate.
I also made Stearns aware that the stories we have done highlighting the death and updating our findings have been the most viewed stories on our website. Stearns responded: “I appreciate the concern and interest in this matter. Further, I share the sense of being unsettled due to the lack of additional information.” Make of that what you will.
I understand this may be a sensitive topic for students, as well as the family and friends of the deceased, but the college owes it to their students to provide condolences and closure when a serious matter, like this, happens on campus. It feels as though the college is trying to brush it under the rug and pretend like it didn’t happen. I also think how school continued as normal during the incident was quite shocking. Soccer practice was still going on the field across from the parking lot, and students continued to walk by and could easily see the uncovered body. When I woke up on the morning of Jan. 21, I was excited to start my last semester at Cuesta. I did not think I was going to have to witness a dead body on campus.
Based on these events, it is clear that Cuesta College doesn’t want to highlight anything negative, sad or unpolished about its campus or its students. When things get brushed under the rug too much, eventually everything starts to spill out, and I believe that is exactly what is happening. If the campus administration focused more on their students and their health, both mental and physical, there might be some real change. I’m not suggesting the campus is entirely flawed or negative, but things need to change and they need to change fast.
The Cuestonian will continue to look for answers on what transpired on Jan. 21 and update the students, faculty and staff with what information, if any, we can find. It is our duty as journalists to be transparent, trustworthy and reliable sources of information in our community, now more than ever before.
