It was the summer of 2017.  I had posted stories about a series of investigative reports about the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board’s decision not to reveal details concerning the reasons for Fishers High School Football Coach Rick Wimmer’s 5-day suspension.  Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt had issued 2 opinions clearly saying HSE Schools were required to disclose the reason or reasons for Wimmer’s suspension.

Mr. Britt’s opinions as Indiana Public Access Counselor are advisory.  HSE Schools chose at the time to ignore Mr. Britt’s findings.

I was asked to meet with a top official of HSE Schools as this was going on because I had written extensively on this blog, pointing to WTHR Television news 13Investigates team reporting on this issue.  Let’s just say we each expressed our own views on the subject.

WTHR was able to obtain legal help with the Wimmer suspension issue from the nonprofit group, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.  WTHR went to court with that legal assistance and won a ruling from the Indiana Supreme Court, with the justices unanimously saying governmental units in Indiana must, under state law, provide specific facts as to why a public employee is suspended, fired or in some way disciplined.

These court cases can be very expensive and it is unclear whether WTHR would have been able to handle the attorney fees to take this case to the state’s highest court without the support of the nonprofit organization.

Katie Townsend, Deputy Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, wrote an Op-Ed piece for the January 5 edition of the Indianapolis Business Journal.  She announces that her group will launch the Indiana Local Legal Initiative, providing an attorney to local Indiana news outlets in need of legal help in supporting their investigative journalism.  The initiative is made possible through the generosity of benefactors such as the Lumina Foundation.

There is no way my small blog can do investigative journalism.  It takes the support of many journalists, editors and lawyers to conduct investigative work.  My blog is just myself so there is no way I could do investigative reporting.

However, I support news organizations with the resources to do this type of journalism.  I am very happy to see nonprofit organizations doing whatever they can to support good, investigative work by local reporters.

That kind of journalism benefits us all.

You can read Katie Townsend’s IBJ Op-Ed piece at this link. (NOTE:  You may not be able to access this story if your are not an IBJ subscriber)