The Pitt News T h e in de p e n d e n t st ude nt ne w spap e r of t he University of Pittsburgh
April 13, 2016 | Issue 142 | Volume 106
STUDENT RAINBOW BRINGS SAMʼS STORY TO PITT ARRESTED FOR CHILD PORN Alexa Bakalarski and Dale Shoemaker
The Pitt News Staff Pittsburgh police arrested a Pitt student Tuesday on child pornography charges, as well as criminal use of a cell phone and the internet, according to a police report. Ammar Butaleb, a first-year Pitt student, was arrested at an apartment Tuesday afternoon on Allequippa Street in Oakland on one felony charge for storing child pornography on a Dropbox account and his cell phone, as well as one felony charge for using the internet to commit a crime, according to the report. The report said Butaleb, who is originally from Kuwait and came to Pitt to study English, said he knew that possessing child pornography was wrong. He told police that he didn’t intentionally store the pornography and thought he had deleted all of it from his Dropbox, the report said. Officers confirmed that Butaleb did not currently have child pornography in his Dropbox account. He told police that he deleted the pornography because he knew it was illegal and only looked at it because he was curious. Butaleb received the porn through links sent from strangers over Omegle, an online messaging system, which he then sent directly to his Dropbox account. He accessed the See Child Porn on page 4
The former NFL athlete spoke to students Tuesday night as part of Pride Week. Alex Nally STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Ashwini Sivaganesh Staff Writer
Michael Sam didn’t set out to make a name for himself as a gay athlete — he just wanted to play football. But when a teammate’s cousin said Sam’s story inspired her against taking her life, Sam realized how influential he could be. Sam told this story Tuesday night as part of the Rainbow Alliance’s second day of Pride Week. The group also hosted a panel from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Assem-
bly Room of the William Pitt Union called “The Pitt LGBTQIA+ Experience: Past, Present and Future.” Sam, the NFL’s first openly gay athlete, who is now a free agent, followed the event with a lecture and Q&A about his experiences before and after coming out. The eight panelists included former presidents and members of the Rainbow Alliance, current Pitt students, faculty from Pitt’s Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Department and University leadership. Brandon Benjamin, a Pitt graduate and former president of the Rainbow Alliance,
moderated the event. They said the most “surprising” takeaway from the panel was the way Pitt students engaged with policy and activism in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond. “Hunger strikes and lawsuits aren’t the first things people assume happen on college campuses, but the advances we’ve made at Pitt in the last two decades are a testament to the power of student coalitions,” Benjamin said. “I hope that these sorts of programs help young activists find their roots and continue the hard work of See Michael Sam on page 8