On the ball
A tipster sent me an email Friday to tell me about a drug search at Swansboro High School, saying they wanted to help me “get on the ball!!!!”
Sigh.
I knew about the drug search – which happens frequently (searches, not me knowing) – almost as soon as it began.
Please don’t construe this post as me saying I’m unappreciative of news tips. I’m not. Many, many good news stories written by me and countless other journalists were generated by news tips so keep them coming.
But knowing about something second hand and reporting on it are two different things. In order to report on something I have to either see it with my own eyes or have it confirmed through a reliable source.
The tipster’s notion that “Facebook is already buzzing about it” is not good enough.
And confirming something like that through the school system is like trying to square a circle.
Read this post from way back in February about the school system not answering questions about alleged sexual assaults at a middle school. Guess what. Still haven’t heard from them.
Maybe when they answer my questions about that I can slip in a question about a routine drug search of a high school.
Oh, and April 20 is the dumbest day to bring weed to school. Duh.
Posted in Closer Look, crime grind | 1 Comment »
Wow, am I glad to hear it’s not just our school system here in Alabama that operates like some covert government agency or – worse – a corporation that is doing something very, very wrong and doesn’t want anyone to find out about it.
My kids reported to me one evening that they’d had a drug arrest and search at their school. Not just a search. An arrest. At a middle school. I was livid that there was no news about it at all. Nowhere. Not even “Facebook buzz.” I called in a tip and was interviewed, but that’s as far as it got. This was the second time this had happened, so I didn’t even bother going to the school or the administration until AFTER I had talked to the media.
Guess what I heard from the school system? And, when I say “school system” I mean: the superintendent of the county schools, the community advisory board – all 5 members, and the principal of the school. NOTHING. At least not until the principal saw me on the news. Then he was all about “being happy to address my questions personally.” Which he got the opportunity to do when I showed up at his office.
At that meeting he basically – in very veiled terms, essentially attributing what he wanted to say to my face but couln’t to an anonymous parent – called me an idiot and said I should get my facts straight. I asked him how parents were supposed to “get facts straight” when the school and the administration went to such obviously great lengths to conceal the facts. He wasn’t too keen on my characterization. I frankly don’t give a damn. I’m still out to hang him. Or, at least, see him retired. Turns out there are many parents around here who can’t stand him. But, I’ll give him this much – he maintains discipline at that school and I’m all for that. I just don’t agree that that should or can only be done under Gitmo-like conditions of secrecy.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe today’s litigious and lax parents have forced schools to conduct business this way. At least in the schools which still attempt to maintain some semblence of order. Orrrrrr. . . maybe the schools are covereing their asses. I mean, you don’t sell a lot of houses in an area where the schools are known to have drugs, right? So, it’s not just the principals of the schools who have an incentive to keep this stuff quiet.
Still, despite the fact that I know the school systems hide this sort of thing from both the media and the parents, I find it very irritating that today’s media doesn’t seem to go after the news. It’s not good enough to politely ask government agencies (including school systems) what happened and just accept their “no comment” replies. I don’t expect reporters to simply report tips as news without verifying. But, I don’t expect them to sit back and report some sanitized public statement from the schools, either.
The schools will not tell us about this stuff. So, we’re sort of counting on you guys to dig up the story and tell us – whether the schools want that story told or not. More often than not, for stories like this, you’ll have to go out and dig to get the scoop. Of course, editors and publishers are often among those who have a vested interest in certain stories staying out of the public’s eye. . .
Comment by Jerry — April 30, 2012 @ 9:12 am