Put simply, carelessness has consequences.

In Sunday’s edition of The Daily Iberian, we published a political cartoon by Fred Mulhearn on our Opinion page that depicted Grambling State University as an unsafe destination with very little rational reasoning to represent the school in such a manner.

The cartoon was out of context of its intent (Mulhearn has said it was to call attention to gun violence) and not at all timely (a shooting on the campus had happened weeks ago).

The Daily Iberian erred in having run the political cartoon, and we are aware of the hurt it has caused Grambling State University, its students, staff, leaders and alumni. As publisher of this newspaper, I will stand to represent our staff in apologizing for its publication … it simply shouldn’t have happened.

As frustrating as it was to see this cartoon Sunday morning, the back story, though short, is equally frustrating.

A page editor placed the Mulhearn political cartoon on the opinion page because that’s what we do on Sunday, we run his cartoon. The page editor did not take a few moments of time to review the cartoon, its message and recognize it was not appropriate for our newspaper and its audience.

All I can do in regards to detailing the decision making of placing this cartoon is be honest and transparent. Alas, there was no decision making to be had in placing the cartoon, no thoughts to its messaging, whether intended or not, nor any contemplation given to how insensitive it was on multiple levels.

It was a Sunday, it was a Mulhearn cartoon, and a couple of keystrokes later, the damage was set to be done.

That’s it. It is that simple and yet so very careless.

Like the proud Tigers they are, the Grambling State alumni roared their outrage across the Internet and into email inboxes. A number of alumni reached out to me by phone and various other forms of communications to ask why this content was published in our newspaper? I am relieved to have had the opportunity to speak with each person who made contact because the conversations were direct, honest and emotional, but each was also respectful, professional and accepting even though both parties were exasperated by what had brought us together.

Random acts of violence, specifically shootings, are a nationwide problem with the location of such deadly shootings as random as the violence. Grocery stores, public events, schools, churches, workplaces, parking lots, the location of the violence can be anywhere. What typically doesn’t happen is the business, church or school become labeled as a place to avoid for all parties. That’s another discouraging part of the cartoon, why would Grambling State have to wear a scarlet letter regarding an act of violence on its campus that wasn’t perpetrated by anyone associated with the school?

When nine people were killed in June, 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., no one held the church with any liability for the violence, no one would dare say the church is unsafe to visit or choose as a family’s house of worship. Grambling State equally doesn’t have any liability for the homecoming incident, and no one should dare say the school is unsafe to visit or choose as a higher place of learning.

The Daily Iberian has taken immediate corrective actions to prevent this from happening again. Further, the Daily Iberian will no longer use this cartoonist.

I’ll close with this … from pain can come a bruise. However, with the bruise comes the start of healing and my intent is to begin the healing process following the hurt we played a role in providing. I offer our sincere apologies for a careless mistake, we share your frustration, we hope for your forgiveness, we will do better.

To those who reached out to me and our General Manager Shanna Dickens, thank you for sharing your feedback and for the constructive conversations on how we can move forward. Again, we will do better.