The New York Times’ visit

toa Litchfield school adds to controversy after two students face expulsion for questionable Halloween costumes.

Litchfield — The metro editor of The New York Times said Friday that a reporter and photographer for The Times did nothing wrong when they came to Litchfield last week to report on the recent arrest of two high school sophomores following a Halloween event in town on Oct. 31.

Metro Editor Wendell Jamieson said in a phone interview Friday with The Register Citizen that The Times would continue to pursue the story because “something smells wrong” about the handling of the Halloween incident by school officials and police, given the details that have been made public about the case so far.

Jamieson’s comments came as Schools Superintendent Lynn McMullin confirmed Friday that the district was moving to expel the two students who were arrested.

In a letter Thursday to Litchfield parents, McMullin said a reporter and a photographer for The Times were asked to leave Litchfield Intermediate School’s campus early Thursday after they arrived “unlawfully and unannounced” and “randomly began speaking to our students.”

‘Willful, deliberate lies’

Jamieson denied that Friday, saying one of his veteran reporters actually had been trying to track down McMullin when she ended up at the Intermediate School campus.

“I think what you have here is a school district that has a serious problem on its hands and is trying to deflect attention away by blaming the media,” Jamieson said. “It’s a tried and true tactic.

“They are telling lies about New York Times reporters, willful deliberate lies,” he added.

Jamieson said veteran reporter Lisa Foderaro had been in Litchfield on Thursday, as had freelance photographer Nathaniel Brooks, who frequently does assignments for The Times.

Jamieson said Foderaro initially went to Litchfield High School to speak with Principal Kristen Della Volpe.

Jamieson said Foderaro had gone to the school’s office, identified herself as a Times reporter and had asked to speak to the principal. He said Foderaro was told she had to speak to the superintendent, whose office is at the Intermediate School.

He said Foderaro had gone to the Intermediate School and tried to check in with someone there but could not find a staff member with whom to check in. Jamieson said Foderaro bumped into a staff member while walking around the school and that staff member told her McMullin was not there.

Foderaro said she would wait in her car for McMullin but was told she could not do that.

As Foderaro was leaving, Jamieson said, she encountered a senior from the high school. Foderaro interviewed the student, which Jamieson said was only natural for a reporter to do.

“She does that with my complete blessing,” he said. “The high school student is free not to talk to her.”

Jamieson said The Times ultimately decided not to use that student’s quotes.

Jamieson also said Brooks had been separate from Foderaro. He said Brooks’ photos showed he had not gone inside the school but instead was down the street.

In her letter Thursday, McMullin also said the Times changed its description of the boys to say they had been “carrying baseball bats” during the alleged threatening incident Saturday night. She said that detail is untrue. Jamieson denied that, too. He said when The Times wrote its first story about the Halloween incident and the arrests, a reporter received an email from McMullin that said the two boys were wearing baseball caps.

Jamieson said the reporter, Ashley Southall, misread that and mistakenly wrote the boys were carrying baseball bats.

“As soon as the mistake was pointed out to us, we corrected it” in that first story, Jamieson said.

No disciplinary action

Jamieson said he also would speak to Southall about the error. He said neither Foderaro nor Brooks would face any disciplinary action because he said they did nothing wrong.

Foderaro and Benjamin Mueller wrote a follow-up story with a Litchfield dateline Thursday, which talked about the district’s move to expel the students who were arrested.

That story included a quote from a Litchfield High School freshman, but the paper said a reporter talked to them at Dunkin’ Donuts with his mother after school.

Litchfield officials have said the two sophomore students who were arrested “chose to wear very inappropriate and alarming disguises on Halloween” and state police said they found the two made threats of bodily harm to other students.

The two have been charged with inciting injury to persons or property and breach of peace. Their identities have not been released because of their age, but they were held and issued court dates in juvenile court for Thursday morning.

School officials said there was no evidence of any credible threat, but the school still took the matter very seriously at every step.

In an email Friday morning, McMullin said the Halloween incident did not take place on school property but instead in the center of town. She also said the students had been suspended as of Monday.

“I think what you have here is a school district that has a serious problem on its hands and is trying to deflect attention away by blaming the media.”

WENDELL JAMIESON, NEW YORK TIMES METRO EDITOR

“They never came back to school,” she wrote. “We are in the process of moving towards expulsion.”

The Times’ Thursday story focused on whether expulsion and criminal charges were appropriate reaction to the costumes. School shootings have drawn increased attention in recent years and for Connecticut, in particular, the memory of the Sandy Hook school shootings remains fresh.

Some in the Times’ story also saw the costumes as a prank that should have been treated as such.