When I was at Iowa State, I spent countless hours working for free on a magazine I loved: Ethos. Ethos was a big part of the reason I wanted to attend ISU. Some people loved our content, some didn’t, and that’s true for any publication so I didn’t let it bother me.

I was disheartened to hear students decided to steal and destroy thousands of dollars worth of Ethos copies; A magazine that has been on campus at ISU since 1946, one funded by your student fees, and one that has taken home regional and national awards and should make Cyclones proud.

Today, I primarily cover colleges and millennials in my current job. For the better part of the past year, I’ve been covering how schools around the country have allegedly covered up rape on campus. How a woman ended up in a psychiatric ward when her college didn’t believe her. How men found guilty of sexual misconduct were given book reports as punishment. How women lost their virginity in a sexual assault. I’ve interviewed dozens of rape victims, who recounted traumatic stories. This is a serious issue not to be taken lightly, and federal complaints and lawsuits will hopefully find justice and truth — whatever it may be — in each of these cases.

It’s a PR nightmare for these schools, and you can’t Google their names without finding accusations they sweep rape under the rug. But these young women didn’t get attention for their cause and prompt federal officials and national reporters to open investigations by destroying a magazine their peers worked their asses off to produce. They spoke out, they got the campus media to cover what they said was an injustice for not properly adjudicating their sexual assault.

What I read in the Daily is there’s an assumption that the Ethos cover story fueled the destruction of magazines. We ran a story when Bubu Palo was charged. Because of search engine optimization, it will likely be years before his charge does not come up with a Google search of his name. Ethos’ story on Palo didn’t ignore that charge either, and it tells what happened in a matter-of-fact way, with several paragraphs explaining what transpired. I don’t know what the truth is concerning the situation, but Palo’s charges were dismissed, so in a court of law, he’s innocent. I know it’s also not clear who stole the magazines, or why they did it, but if it’s for concern about Palo’s charge, attacking a magazine that had nothing to do with his alleged crime and it’s dismissal is a poor way to protest.

Another thing I’ve watched and reported on in my current job is people trying to destroy stacks of newspapers when something they don’t agree with is published. What always happens is the issue gets far more attention, usually with the assumption of guilt on the part of whoever is destroying the work of a newspaper or magazine staff.

It doesn’t matter the reason, trying to silence students’ free expression is inappropriate. Slyly trying to destroy your classmate’s work on a magazine you paid for with student fees does not spark social change. There will always be publications that you don’t agree with and stories you wish weren’t written, but our society is built on free expression and dialogue, not silencing what you don’t like.