A story written by El Vaquero  editor-in-chief Agnessa Kasumyan and published in its Oct. 22 edition was misappropriated and republished in El Paisano, the student newspaper of Rio Hondo College, as well as on its website. El Paisano’s co-editor David Loza said the story was given to his adviser, John Francis, by their marketing department as a “news release.”  A few lines and a quote from Francis were added to the story, but otherwise the story was published verbatim without attribution to Kasumyan.

El Paisano has since apologized, pulled the story from the website and recently printed the following retraction, which is presented here.

Retraction: For the record

November 1, 2014

Filed under News

“The story of a former teacher who was arrested recently for not registering as a sex offender that appeared in El Paisano Online was not a press release but was, in fact, written by Glendale College’s El Vaquero Editor-in-Chief Agnessa Kasumyan. 

Ms. Kasumyan spent over 20 hours investigating the story leading up to the arrest of Edgard Aguilar, who taught at schools in Southern California and worked for publishing companies in the area. 

El Paisano regrets this error and wishes to extend an apology to Agnessa Kasumyan, the El Vaquero staff and Adviser Michael Moreau.” 

It should be noted that Aguilar was arrested before Kasumyan’s story was published and it did not lead up to his arrest in Utah for forcible sex abuse and failure to register as a sex offender. The story identified his presence at Southern California schools and events for the Journalism Association of Community Colleges.