Florence, AZ—Phoenix
television stations must be starving for news today. They sent crews out to Anthem Elementary
School in this not so nearby Phoenix suburb. It
is about a one-hour drive each way for TV news crews responding to this
“important” story.
Apparently a troubled 8th
grader there sent a text suggesting he did not want to live and put out a list
of those he was unhappy with. Without
being specific the Florence police officials told reporters that they determined that the message was
ambiguous and not a valid threat.
I don’t suggest for a second
that the matter should not be investigated.
It was, and there was no crime. I’m
sure this event deserved some legitimate concern for the depressed lad in
question.
Whoever called the media to
this event was more dangerous than the kid.
More than that, the decision by assignment editors to make a news story
out of this garbage is more troubling.
Whoever called the media in
on this was obviously some taxpayer-funded attention-whore trying to appear
heroic.
Every eighth grader has bad
days and people they don’t like. Yes,
they make lists and want the objects of their angst out of their lives. At that age kids are just learning about
what’s acceptable and what is not. They
also want to push the envelope as far as they can.
Here there was never a valid
criminal event but making such a mountain out of a molehill sends the wrong
message to the kids and the TV news viewers.
Must we be at such a state of
siege in our schools that we over-react to things like the child who bit his
Pop-Tart into the shape of a pistol?
This is a diverse and divided
nation of over 300,000,000 people and there will be killings at schools and all
kinds of crimes. I must ask, is every kid with an emotional
meltdown somehow a news story today?
It would be different if a
child was injured or there was an attempt at stabbing or shooting. That certainly was not the case here.
Do news providers serve any
purpose by worrying parents everywhere with non-newsworthy events like this
one?
Once the news crews investigated
and returned to their stations any intent to actually broadcast this story was really ill
advised.
Comments
I have since learned that some dope at the school sent letters to the parent’s homes with the students informing them of the situation. Some of the parents panicked creating the crisis by calling the media.
If I had children I’d want to home school them to avoid all the dysfunctional “educators” protected by unions.
Under the circumstanced the media should end the parental panic. They could have done that without actually going to the school.