Cops Still Investigating Fargo Reporter

FTVLive told you last week that police were investigating a Fargo Reporter after her station KVLY aired a story about school security. 

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And it appears that the school's security tapes might tell a different story that what the station did. 

The Duluth News Tribune writes that after school officials here reviewed their own security tapes, a third metro law enforcement agency has opened an investigation into whether a Fargo television news reporter broke the law by entering three area elementary schools without permission.

The district’s superintendent is also questioning the accuracy of the Valley News Live report.

Lt. Joel Vettel said Friday the Fargo Police Department has opened an investigation of the Valley News Live reporter after school officials dropped off security video from the school.

The Moorhead and West Fargo police departments said Thursday they were investigating whether the reporter broke state or city laws in the hidden-camera report about school security that aired Wednesday.

Fargo Superintendent Jeff Schatz said Friday that the security cameras at a district elementary school show Valley News Live Reporter Mellaney Moore entering the school near the office and taking a quick left. Schatz said a faculty member then noticed Moore wasn’t wearing school identification in the hallway and asked her what she was looking for. The staff member then directed her to the office to sign in.

The video shows Moore walking back toward the office, stopping momentarily, then heading out the door without checking in, Schatz said.

In the full report that aired on Valley News Live on Wednesday, Moore said she entered elementary schools in Fargo, West Fargo and Moorhead and was allowed to walk freely, without anyone stopping her in two of them.

“I expected to be intercepted by security but again I walked right in,” Moore said of the Fargo school in her report. “I met one faculty member that was more than willing to direct me to any classroom.”

Moore said the faculty member did not ask her why she was there or if she had signed in at the office.

Schatz said he was concerned the report misrepresented the teacher’s actions, which were in line with school protocol. He said the faculty member did ask Moore if she had registered at the office and asked her to return to the office and register.

“(Moore) made it sound as if nobody had approached her and that just flat out is not true,” he said.

Valley News Live News Director Ike Walker said Friday the report was clear the reporter was stopped in at least one school.

“We said all along that she was stopped by a teacher,” Walker said.