Opinion columnist, Alexia Isais, is officially no longer allowed to express her opinion for the State Press.
On Sept. 17, Isais was dismissed from the publication due to controversial tweets regarding police. “Did anyone else get a blue alert?? Apparently, that’s when law enforcement is in danger… the (serotonin) is kicking in,” tweeted Isais.
“Sorry but police aren’t actually human, they can all go fall into abyss and society would be better without them,” she wrote in another tweet minutes later.
Alexia has now deleted both of these tweets but before she could, the publication caught wind and three State Press editors quickly followed suit and signed a letter that was published condemning the tweets.
The publication later deleted this letter, saying that it was too vague and had an inaccurate depiction of the ongoing situation. State Press editors then released a different letter explaining their decision.
“We believe that this incident crossed a line and, as a newsroom, we have standards that we must uphold,” the letter said. “If any member of our staff, regardless of status or affiliation, had made such comments, no matter the subject of the tweet, they would have faced the same punishment.”
Adrienne Dunn is the executive editor for State Press and said Isais’s tweets “violated the social media and ethics guidelines and endangered our newsroom’s reputation as well as our staff.”
“Alexia was not fired for being anti police or for expressing her personal or political views,” Dunn said in an email. “We have defended her through various other situations, including defending controversial columns and social media posts.”
Isais said she has had a few complaints written against her and has been told by the State Press to be considerate of her language. However, she said nothing has been as severe as this.
“I have said more inflammatory things before, way worse than the reason I was fired,” Isais said.
Isais’s situation comes shortly after the controversial removal of another staff member of an Arizona State University network, Blaze Radio, again due to controversial tweets.
Former Blaze Radio station manager Rae’Lee Klein tweeted on Aug. 29 “always more to the story folks” along with a link to a New York Post article about sexual assault allegations against Jacob Blake, a black man shot in the back seven times by police.
“Please read this article to get the background of Jacob Blake’s warrant. You’ll be quite disgusted,” her since-deleted tweet also said.
ICYMI: Former Blaze Radio station manager seeks legal counsel after removal from position
Klein hasn’t officially been removed from her position and is still an employee of the university, but the board of Blaze Radio and other student groups sought her removal within the same time span as Isais was removed from her publication.
“The only reason Klein’s removal took longer is because Blaze radio staffers can’t fire their peers whereas State Press leadership editors can,” Dunn said.
She also said the State Press would have removed Rae’Lee immediately if allowed to do so.
Lee Bertola is a W.P Carey School of Business student and said “seeing Alexia getting fired is hard to watch.”
“It’s hard for people to grasp how quickly this is all happening and I don’t even know how to react to it,” Bertola said.
Isais was also frustrated with the situation, especially since Klein was inherently discriminating against a protected group.
As an opinion columnist, Isais said she has always been open about her stances, but now everything has changed.
“One of my demands was that the State Press specifically state what happened,” said Isais, “as well as, issue a public apology, since I wasn’t discriminating against a protected class.”
Isais was fired by a phone call from her editor. Although it was unclear what the publication wanted to do, it was apparent to Isais that she was going to be let go.
As the investigation and complete decision-making are still in progress, Isais is still in contact with the publication and says that she will give them time to meet her demands before starting a boycott.
Editor’s Note: Klein has not been officially removed from her position as station manager, however, she does not have input over current Blaze Radio programming. As of this update, she is still an employee of the university.
This story has been updated to include a statement from the State Press.
Contact the reporter at achorzel@asu.edu.
