A few things I'm thinking about:
Why I ran the Besendorfer story- One of the comments I have seen a few times since I posted the story about Joplin R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer's filing for divorce is that it is not news and people are certainly entitled to their definition of news. I have also heard that more and more I am sounding like a bitter, fired teacher and I have even been accused of stalking.
It Was News- If Angie Besendorfer had filed for divorce even a month or two after my termination hearing, I would not have written a word about it. Some of you may find that hard to believe, but at that point, it did not tie in to any other news stories. I did not just add the last few paragraphs of the story to make it longer. Besendorfer's departure for Western Governors University is a major development in the ongoing series of revelations about the Joplin R-8 School District. It was announced on the day before Thanksgiving with little or no ceremony. Considering the ongoing investigations into the operations of the school district, it was quite natural that many considered it a sign of someone leaving a sinking ship. After all, why would someone under contract leave a school district halfway through the year at a time when new schools are opening- schools that are more a product of her vision than anyone else's? And especially when the crown jewel of those new schools, Joplin High School, is still several months away from opening. I have had people e-mail me and tell me that the marital problems were taking place and offering that as a reason why Besendorfer might be taking the WGU job. At that point, however, the information was not a matter of public record. Now it is. The departure of Angie Besendorfer from the Joplin Schools is a major story. The reason why, and we still do not know it for sure- it could very well be because WGU is a dream job- is an important part of the story.
Stalking?- I understand the people who have a problem with inserting a personal situation, even one that is a matter of record, in a post. Those who took the cheap shot of calling me a stalker are just taking cheap shots. One of the reasons I have so many stories that are not featured elsewhere is because I go through state, county, and federal records on a daily basis. Was I stalking Daniel Whirworth when I ran the target letter he received from the U. S. Attorney telling him he was the subject of a grand jury investigation or Jeffrey Bruner when I wrote that he had been bound over for trial and had his bond set at $1 million? Obviously not, but the last time I received criticism for bringing personal information into a news story was when I revealed that Bruner's wife was an employee at Missouri Southern State University, where murder victim Derek Moore was an offensive line coach. What did that have to do with anything, people wrote me. Sources had already told me that it was very much connected to what happened at Northstar 14, something that quickly became apparent.
Bitter? Considering the character assassination that took place last year, something that I have no doubt involved Angie Besendorfer and almost certainly was instigated by her, I would guess not many people would blame me for being bitter. Perhaps to some extent I am, but that is not the reason I have written so many posts about the problems in the Joplin R-8 School District. The one good thing that has come out of my firing is that I have been given the opportunity to work on the biggest story I have been handed in the nearly 37 years since I started my first newspaper job. Hundreds of teachers leaving the school district, out-of-control spending, a climate of fear like none I have seen in the all of the years I covered area school districts and much, much more. Perhaps I am bitter, but I take reporting seriously. As with my earlier reporting on Bruce Speck and the problems at Missouri Southern, no one ever questioned the journalism; they just attacked me personally or accused me of being tabloid.
In conclusion- For those of you who simply have a problem with ever bringing something like a divorce into the news, I respect that opinion and I do not want to lose you as readers. I want you to know that writing something like this is not something I do without careful consideration. Judge me on my entire record.
