Student journalist files lawsuit against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
A student reporter at Cal Poly and a nonprofit advocating for First Amendment rights have filed a lawsuit against Cal Poly. Student journalist Elizabeth Wilson and the First Amendment Coalition filed the lawsuit Tuesday on claims the university failed to disclose public records she requested more than 18 months ago. Wilson filed three records requests in September and October 2022, according to the lawsuit. It states that in all three cases, Wilson received responses from Cal Poly saying the university would search for those records, but when no updates were given and the records were not released, according to the documents, she turned to the First Amendment Coalition (FAC) for help. She was investigating administrators’ responses to reported sexual assaults on campus and alleged student labor violations,” FAC representative Annie Cappetta said. “But the case isn’t necessarily about the underlying stories, but the fact that my client has a right to receive this information under the Public Records Act and the state Constitution and Cal Poly has withheld that information and violated those rights. When filing a records requests, I go by a hunch that