Just one day before spring break a chief officer for the Student Government Association had his chances of running for student body president destroyed with one article written by the Missouri State University newspaper called "The Standard." The article has information regarding tweets made by Richard Garcia from 2013-2015 which included racial slurs, derogatory words against women, and homophobic commentary. However, when you meet this individual today he is not the person he was when he made those tweets. He is now a culturally competent individual who has had a very large impact on the entirety of Missouri State's campus.

When the article went public, the criticism of the article was very quick as well. Countless people have come to the defense of Richard and are discussing what kind of person he is today. As well as tweets discussing the improvements he could have made to this campus as the next student body president. Although many people came to his defense, many people felt that showing people his social media past was important. They also felt that he should not be in charge of the student body since he spoke that way almost five years ago.

The news then broke that a writer and photographer from "The Standard" named Brenner Moore and Bailey Vassalli use the exact same slurs that Richard had been found to use on social media many years ago. The same slurs, the same insults, used repeatedly in what they seemed to consider a harmless fashion. Along with finding these two writers using the exact same types of hate speech, the editor in chief of the newspaper, Alec McChesney would turn tweets about the article into ways of self-promotion of a book review along with insults.

Brenner has since been disaffiliated from his job at the paper for an extended period of time. However, these accusations came about and showed the association he had with them. Bailey has been suspended until April 1st. People also feel that this should not have happened to Bailey and a rehashing of memories for Brenner as well. After these punishments came to light in the latest article by Alec, his tone of writing changed as well. He addressed the media and noted that they wrote the truth. You can read this article here at this link. (http://www.the-standard.org/opinion/mcchesney-as-j... )The truth which ruined someone's reputation at the university, the truth that made someone a public figure of criticism, and someone who could barely converse on what happened to him because he was so upset. When Bailey and Brenner were exposed for their wrong-doings, the tone amongst the student population was full of rage and anger as well.

As a university, the mission statement is "Missouri State University is a public, comprehensive university system with a mission in public affairs. Our purpose is to develop fully educated persons with a focus on ethical leadership, cultural competence, and community engagement." Many feel that the leadership being displayed has been unjust throughout this entire process. Also, another issue that many see throughout this process is the fact that all parties involved in this issue suffered. Richard stepped down and Bailey faces a suspension. Brenner is no longer a writer for The Standard at this current time. The way this was all handled has turned into a mess. It has turned into ruined reputations, lost jobs, and a general disdain for how all of this was handled.

Cultural competence is something that develops and grows for many students as they continue their time at a university. Although social media is one of the largest platforms we use in society, it is time to set the standard for how students can interact with one another and treat each other. Having the freedom of speech is crucial in today's society, however, using that to destroy one's reputation in attempts to create a better image for yourself never works out. People can always track down what has been done in the past and more times than not the student who is shaming another student has done the exact same thing. They just happened to think that they were not going to be caught for it. These issues show that something we experience as we mature is growth. We experience immense amounts of growth. We learn from our errors, we change our views, and we change our lives.

I think that this series of events is something we can consider a reality check for many and a wake-up call for others. We have to monitor ourselves on social media whether we want to or not. It does follow us throughout our career paths and can continually effect what we do in our lives. Future employers can look at our social media whether we create a professional page along with our personal and see how we present ourselves on all platforms. We may keep our "finstas" private, our tweets locked, and our social media present private, it doesn't mean that people are not going to look at what you say or tweet rather.