Texas State student paper's report leads to quarterback's withdrawal
University Star story stems from football player's sexual assault case
In less than a week, a story published by a student journalist at Texas State University triggered a campus outcry, leading a newly transferred star quarterback to withdraw from the university.
The article focused on Jayden de Laura, who recently joined Texas State from the University of Arizona, and revealed a civil lawsuit settlement related to a sexual assault case during his time at a Hawaii high school in 2018.
Nichaela Shaheen, the managing editor of the student newspaper The University Star, said while other news outlets reported on de Laura's transfer, her team sought a different angle.
With the awareness of the civil suit, the journalists obtained the court documents from Hawaii, got email statements from the plaintiff’s lawyer and learned that a settlement had just been reached — before anyone else.
“We went from not even having anything about the fact that he was committing to Texas State to being the ones that broke the news on the fact that he signed the day after he settled the lawsuit,” Shaheen said. “When we did more research and digging, it led to the actual story that was published.”
The story sparked public outrage on campus with students planning a protest and a parent launching a petition urging the university to revoke de Laura's offer, garnering 4,900 signatures. The student government demanded a formal apology from officials.
The first article ran Jan. 18. Initially defending de Laura, Texas State announced the athlete withdrew from the school Jan. 24.
The Nutgraf sought email correspondence between athletic staff and administrators to learn what went on after the story publication through a public information request. The university denied it, citing privacy laws.
The Nutgraf reached out to de Laura on X, seeking his comments about the coverage and its aftermath, but didn’t receive a response.
When asked about the decision to publish the story, Shaheen cited Texas State's history of lacking transparency regarding reports of sexual assault and the campus' and San Marcos’ status as a news desert.
“As far as how we decided whether it's fair or not, I think it would have been unjust to not give our audience the information that they needed to know,” Shaheen said.
Carson Weaver, the editor-in-chief, opined in the newspaper that the university put “winning above morals” in signing de Laura. He pointed to increases in rapes, hate crimes, aggravated assaults, dating violence and stalking cases in 2022.
Weaver said the signing gave no assurance to the student body that the university is taking these increases “seriously enough to consider not signing a quarterback who doesn’t represent the values someone with that significant of a leadership position will have on the athletics program and the campus.”
The initial story didn’t include any statement from officials or any indication that the reporter reached out to the university.
Shaheen said she got an email from the communications office shortly after the publication, asking why it wasn’t given a chance to comment.
“When you have breaking news, you have to break the news,” she said, noting the paper subsequently ran a story on the university’s response. “You don’t really have necessarily a lot of time to give these statements.”
Texas State’s athletic department told The Nutgraf it didn’t have any comment on this.
Shaheen said the “whirlwind” experience solidified her career goal of becoming a journalist. She said she learned that “our words really are powerful” and that “student media is more than just students using it as a fun experience.”
“But it’s us actually providing information to our audience that is important,” she said. “It was a very insane experience, but I’m very grateful to have done it at The University Star.”
Corrections: The earlier version of the story inaccurately indicated Nichaela Shaheen interviewed the plaintiff’s lawyer; however, their interaction was through email correspondence. It also inaccurately indicated she received an inquiry from school officials the following morning; in reality, she received it just two hours after the publication.
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