If a number of parents had decided to pull their children out of the Joplin R-8 School District due to Monday's shooting incident at Memorial Middle School, it would be a story, and a major one.
I just watched Fox 14's lead story- one woman has decided to pull her children out of Memorial and homeschool them.
There were a heck of a lot more parents who did not hesitate to send their children back to Memorial. That would also be worth a story. So far, the only mention I have seen of that fact was a quote from Superintendent Jim Simpson noting that Memorial's attendance the day after the shooting incident was only two percent below normal. Ninety-three percent came to school. That certainly would leave a lot of parents available for interviews.
I am sure many of those parents were fearful. We live in an era where it keeps being proven day after day that no place is safe, but these parents still had confidence in Memorial officials and in officials throughout the Joplin R-8 School District.
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I am also bothered by the prominent play given to rumors of planned violence at Joplin High School today. These were rumors and did not deserve the prominence they received, especially in the Joplin Globe, but also in the Joplin Daily and on the television stations. This is the kind of coverage that could easily fuel a wave of copycats, gloryseekers, and people taking advantage of any opportunity they can get to stay home from school.
3 comments:
Wow, a negative post about KOAM/FOX 14. KSN/ KODE will win you back yet! You'll notice those two stations didn't run "rumors" on their newscasts.
I think that the problems we are facing regarding school violence all started when our government decided to take prayer out of our schools. Also I noticed that the youth of today show very little respect for anything or anyone. I am a parent of two teenagers and it is hard to teach them respect in today's world. A lot different than when I was growing up.
I think giving coverage to the rumors would only be giving them legs and encourage more students to try the same kind of email stunts.
However, how about some coverage about the rumors, complete with details on what the police are trying to do to track the email's origin. They seem to be able to do that on Law and Order every week.
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