Most of us have heard the story by now. If you haven’t, here are the bare facts: An RWC professor is arrested after he and a group of his students are in a park at night by a small fire, videotaping a girl with nothing on but black angel wings. When the facts are presented this way, you are bound to jump to many conclusions and make several assumptions, most of them probably very wrong. So let me break it down a bit more so that you know exactly what happened.RWC’s eMedia professor Mike Sanders and a group of his students (after Sanders obtained the proper permits) went to Sharon Woods to videotape an of-age woman for a film Sanders was trying to make. The group went there in the evening to reduce the chance of being seen or accused of breaking public indecency laws.
After a Park District ranger spotted them, he, of course, had a few questions to ask. Unfortunately Sanders could not produce the permit, so the Park ranger arrested him. Asked to produce the videotape and proof of the woman’s age that was being filmed, Sanders refused, probably because he had gone through all the right channels to ensure that something like this would not happen and to protect the privacy of the nude model, who is a student here at RWC.
What happened next does not show the Park District rangers at their finest: they searched Sanders’ car, home and even his office here at RWC. After finding nothing, Michael Sanders and his lawyer turned over the woman’s driver’s license and the videotape, proving that nothing but art was taking place on the video and that she was indeed over 18.
However, the real questions that should have been asked probably never will be and must go unanswered. questions such as, why didn’t the city have a copy of Sanders’ permit on file? Why wasn’t the young lady asked for some form of identification when the ranger stumbled upon the group of students? Why was Sanders arrested that night before further investigation? And, most importantly, why did it take 45 days of harassing and waiting on Michael Sanders to do the work for them before this case was solved? Sanders broke no laws, he started no trouble, and yet this very harmless situation thrust him into the local spotlight as speculation over his credibility came into play.
Former students had nothing but praise and concern for the professor. Nick Livingston was quoted in the Enquirer as saying over e-mail, “I feel blessed to have met him, much less had the opportunity to learn at his knee.”
Another former student, Scott Williams told Enquirer reporters, “Mike is a video artist and this is all just blown out of proportion, especially the search warrant and raiding of his personal items. This was just uncalled for.”
The professor, who has been on sabbatical all quarter, was not available for comment.