Sometimes, the old adage is true. Behold:

Bins found in storage yard

These are the distribution bins of The Liberty, an independent student newspaper at Oregon State University. After seeking the help of the police to find out what happened to their property after the bins suddenly vanished one day, this is how the students found them–thrown in a heap, one of them broken, all of them covered in mud and debris.

Mud & debris

The bins fell open due to the haphazard way they were thrown on the ground, and around 150 copies of the latest issue of the paper were ruined.

Ruined papers

But the most shocking thing about this situation is who was responsible for it. It was none other than the OSU administration, who decided one day–as part of an effort to “clean up” the campus–that they would take all of the The Liberty’s outdoor distribution bins without giving notice to anyone from the paper (even though the contact information for the editorial staff is clearly listed inside the front page of every issue in the bins). The other student publication on campus, The Daily Barometer, has more than 24 bins at last count, but theirs were untouched by this “clean up” effort.

Not surprisingly, these events are the heart of a federal lawsuit filed by the ADF Center for Academic Freedom on Tuesday afternoon in the United States District Court, District of Oregon. More information about the case can be found here.