WESTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) - The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered a private college and a student journalist to try to resolve the student’s lawsuit asking the college to turn over arrest records and other information.
Anna Schiffbauer, editor of a news website at Otterbein College in the Columbus suburb of Westerville, contends the college police department is a public office covered by the state’s open-records laws.
Student journalists at the liberal-arts college have battled Otterbein over the release of records since the campus security force became a full-fledged police department of state-certified officers in 2011.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor ordered mediation in the case Tuesday.
Otterbein has argued it is exempt from public-records laws as a private institution and federal law requires it to protect certain information about students from release.
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