A freshman accounting major from Midland was arrested on campus early Saturday morning.
According to a police report, Davis Wade Fender was charged with evading arrest or detention with a vehicle. The police report lists the offense as a third degree felony.
Police say they observed Fender strike a parked vehicle in the parking lot of a local Whataburger, and he fled the scene when an officer attempted to make contact. Fender didn’t stop until he reached the 1800 block of Campus Court on the west side of campus, where police arrested him at 1:45 a.m. and transported him to the Taylor County jail.
According to jail records, Fender was released the same day on bond of $9,000.
A third degree felony is punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
As a highschool student who is potentially interested coming to ACU with a career in journalism, I found the article over the freshman evading arrest disgusting and hypocritical. In the Bible in John 8:7 it says, ” So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.” I realize that along with journalism comes ‘freedom of speech’ but I also take into account that ACU is a CHRISTIAN college. We have all made mistakes, or had a second of bad judgement, but by God’s grace and forgiveness we can repent from our sins and we are forgiven. As a christian school with christian writers I believe this article is hypocritical when we have all made mistakes and not a single one of us is perfect. This is an 18 year old boy and I want you to think long and hard about as a christian what you could potentially be doing to harm this boys life by printing this on paper. Let me know what you have to say about that please. Have a nice day.
EK,
the bible also says to follow the laws of the land. Lets dissect what it means to be hypocritical first. one who is said to be hypocritical is “a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs. (dictionary.com)” So if you are insinuating that Brittany Jackson has no moral or religious beliefs because she is stating factual evidence to the general public, than you are committing a major fallacy and are using the word “hypocritical” poorly. Furthermore, if we(Brittany and I) go to a christian college are we supposed to only report on the good things that occur in our student body at ACU? Hopefully your answer would be no. Also, I’m not sure if putting this on the optimist website will damage his name anymore than his crime will. When applying for jobs, school, passports, guns etc.. you must report any and every felony charge that you have accumulated. So even if he wasn’t in this article his life will be changed for the worse either way. You are correct in saying that we all fall short of the grace and mercy of God, but you are wrong in how religion ties to ethics in journalism, especially for something like this article. I hope you do choose to come to ACU and take an ethics course. This way you might be able to understand my stance better.
Brad H.
EK, I hope the above comment is a joke. It shows a severe misunderstanding of ACU, the Bible, and Journalism.
Journalism is about facts; whether or not you like them, they are still facts. The verse you quoted from John has to do with the judgement of others. There is no judgement in the above story, just the facts of what happened. These stories about local crime are found in newspapers, online articles, and the evening news all the time. The only reason it is in the Optimist in the first place is because it happened on campus.
As for the Bible, I hope you’re aware that the Bible is chock full of stories about the shortcomings, sins, and crimes of humans throughout history. The Bible presents the facts of what happened, and usually goes a step further than this article and addresses the eternal, spiritual consequences of the sins of those who committed them. I wouldn’t start judging Ms. Jackson on her reporting unless you’re going to go after Moses for criticizing the fidelity of the Israelites, or Paul for reprimanding shady worship habits of the Corinthians. There’s a long list.
As far as ACU is concerned, I quickly discovered as a freshman that it is not a place of rainbows and lollipops, where everyone walks around singing worship songs and talks about how excited they are to go to chapel. It is first and foremost an institution of higher learning. Yes, some parts incorporate Christianity, but not all programs or students have a righteous zeal of putting in Jesus in everything. Anyone who tells you otherwise either has no recent experience on campus or works for ACU Admissions. It’s a bubble that pops on most freshman, but it’s the truth.
I understand this may be a shock for you, but please take these points into considerations and “think long and hard as a christian” how your comments don’t make much sense on any front.
Personally, I hear where EK is coming from. However, citing the bible in journalism is a weak way to try and get your point across to the public. While this is a Christian school, as ChoirTeacher stated, it does not mean that everyone hear proclaims a Christian faith, in fact, a lot do not. It does seem wrong for this to be posted, but you of all people should understand that journalism requires you to post an article that would be intriguing for your audience to hear. Even if it does seem unfair to the young man apprehended, it is in fact, public record. This story, in no way harms his future, or question whether or not the author is or is not a Christian. That is purely assumption on your part, and assumptions is where you lose credibility with your audience and with any hopes of become a journaling major. However, a tremendous amount of respect from me, and I’m sure from others reading this, goes out to you for standing up for this young man, whether you know him or not. I hope that an article like this does not keep you away from attending Abilene Christian University in the future. God Bless, EK.
As far as I am concerned, it does not sound like journalism is the major for you.
All the newspaper is doing is trying to keep up with the current events on campus. Look at it from the newspapers standpoint, they know that a lot of people were talking about this because almost all of Mabee hall saw the event occur from the dorm.
The newspaper wanted to be able to bring the student body FACTS about the incident. That is all.