Indications are that weather personality Roxy Van Ruiten has left KTSM. Several social media posts have pointed out that Van Ruiten has been off the air for the last two weeks. She was not on the air this week, making this her third week. Van Ruiten regularly posted videos of her weather reports on her professional Facebook account. The last weather video she posted was on Monday, October 2. She has not posted another report since then. Last month KTSM put Van Ruiten on a performance evaluation.
The Performance Evaluation
As we reported last month, Van Ruiten was issued a Performance Evaluation Plan by KTSM. The performance plan outlined that KTSM could terminate Van Ruiten if “she is not making sufficient progress” at KTSM. Among the items outlined in the improvement plan included being on time for work, being prepared to deliver the weather and producing weather scripts for “weather hits.”
Although the performance evaluation outlined timeliness and preparation at the time she was put on the performance plan, there is some controversy at the station over a convicted sex offender working there. Rubén Olague was fired by the station and Van Ruiten was put on the performance evaluation plan after our report about the sexual offender at the station.
No Longer Listed At KTSM Website
As of this morning, Roxy Van Ruiten is no longer listed on the KTSM’s “Meet The Team” website page. The only two weather personalities left on the station’s page are Monica Cortez and Robert Bettes. Before her removal from KTSM’s team page, Van Ruiten was listed as the morning forecaster. Our investigation into Van Ruiten’s status at the station also discovered that her X (formerly Twitter) account has been suspended for violating the platform’s rules.
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Van Ruiten’s Twitter Account Suspended
In preparing for this report, we found that Van Ruiten’s X’s (formely Twitter) social media account was suspended for violating the platform’s rules, according to the error message displayed when her profile is visited.
It is unclear what rules Van Ruiten may have violated.
Status Of Convicted Sexual Offender At KTSM
Since our report about convicted sexual offender Gabriel Medrano making several employees at the station uncomfortable, two employees directly linked to the controversy are no longer at KTSM. Rubén Olague, who went on the record to report the controversy, was terminated by the station shortly after our report and Van Ruiten was placed on a performance evaluation plan. Both filed a complaint about Medrano with the station’s human resources department. Van Ruiten now appears to have left the station as well. It is unclear whether she left voluntarily or was terminated by the station.
The status of Medrano at the station is unclear, however indications are that he is still employed there.
It is also unclear whether Van Ruiten’s social media account suspension is related to her departure from KTSM or if the suspension and her departure are unrelated. In addition to the two recent departures from KTSM, it was recently revealed that KTSM killed a timely interview of an elected official because of bias against the subject of the interview by station management.
El Paso News will continue to monitor this situation and will report as more information becomes available.
