Students find photo hard to stomach, take papers

FRAMINGHAM -- Dozens of copies of the Framingham State College student newspaper went missing recently, but the culprits were not angry over an editorial or a hard-hitting exposé. Two students said they did not like a picture showing their bare midriffs splashed across the front page.

Chris Calzolaio, a junior and sports editor of The Gatepost student newspaper, thought he had snapped the perfect picture for the April 27 edition. The color photo showed seven female students in the stands at a lacrosse game with their stomachs painted to spell a player's name.

But two of the girls in the photo, who had attended the game to call attention to their friend on the team, cringed when they saw the photo.

"I just kind of got caught up in the moment and grabbed a whole bunch of copies," said 18-year-old Jennifer Carsillo, a freshman from Salem, Conn. She says she and a friend stashed the papers in their dorm rooms.

"We didn't think it was a big deal," Carsillo said yesterday.

The paper's editor did.

"You're standing in the way of the college community reading the news," said 21-year-old Megan Turner of Waterford, Conn., the paper's editor.

Carsillo said a friend convinced her that the incident was a big deal. So, a few days after grabbing them, Carsillo and the other student involved gave the papers to campus police. "And we told them we were sorry," she said.

Turner wants the students to pay the $600 it cost to print 500 additional copies.

Susanne Conley, dean of students, said officials are considering disciplinary action. "Apparently, some students didn't understand the implications of taking papers in an attempt to keep others from seeing it."

Some papers are still missing.

The paper's faculty adviser, English professor Desmond McCarthy, said about 800 to 1,000 papers were taken. Carsillo said she took only 130.

"I took two," said Courtney Wall, an 18-year-old freshman from Saugus. "Not for me. My mom wanted them."