Bosley's lawsuit filed

Prof. Karen Bosley has filed her lawsuit against Ocean County College administrators and trustees.

UPDATE (6/30/06, 7:33 p.m. ET)
The Student Press Law Center has posted a story today about Bosley's lawsuit that contains a link to a PDF file of the lawsuit and some examples of articles (PDF) that appeared in the Viking News.

Here is a link to a story from the June 21 edition of the Asbury Park Press.

There is also this story from the June 21 edition of the Ocean County Observer. However, keep in mind that the Observer erred in the story by identifying Joe Adelizzi as the "younger, less experienced" person who replaced Bosley. That is not the case. The "younger, less experienced" person refers to a professor who replaced Bosley in a media law class.

Below is the full text of the press release sent out by Bosley upon filing her lawsuit:

My lawsuit against Jon H. Larson, president of Ocean County College; the college’s Board of Trustees; Tara Kelly, vice president of college advancement; Daniel Duffy, former vice president of student affairs; Don Doran, acting vice president of student affairs; Joseph Adeliizzi, director of student media; Frank J. Wetta, vice president of academic affairs, and Martin Novelli, dean of humanities, fine arts and media studies, was filed at 12:06 p.m. today (June 19) in Federal District Court, Trenton.

The suit charges I am the victim of retaliation and age discrimination and my First Amendment rights were violated by the defendants.

I am saddened the state of affairs at the college has come to this, but I was left with no other option after being fired as newspaper adviser and reassigned from teaching the journalism courses I had created and taught for more that 30 years. I have always taught my students and advised newspaper staff members to be responsible and ethical journalists and to exercise without fear their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and of the press. My actions in this case are consistent with those ideals that have been a part of my teaching at OCC for 35 years.

I am gratified to have the continuing support of so many colleagues, students, former students and journalism organizations. I never dreamed as a member of the board of directors of the Student Press Law Center for several years that I and some of my students would need the legal assistance of the center.

Those students and I look forward to a timely and just outcome to this reprehensible affair.