Self-censorship at 1 News Plaza

From an email, an example of how small-town jealousies and politics drive editors crazy:

Between Friday, April 20 and Wednesday morning, April 25th, the Peoria Journal
Star received 154 comments to the below story. They received a complaint about
a comment being a personal attack.
Yes of the 154 some should have been removed and they had been removing
them. But today after someone called and complained they pulled all comments.
One of the comments they removed was from a former Columbine high school
student. Attached are few I had copied days before they removed them all.
There was no reason to remove all.
unfair
http://www.pjstar.com/stories/042007/REG_BD00T24M.033.php

School as a weekend hangout?

6 Midland students enter high school Saturday night using board member’s pass
card

Friday, April 20, 2007

by Gary L. Smith

OF THE JOURNAL STAR

VARNA - Midland School District officials have been fielding questions about
six students who were found in the high school by police late Saturday after
entering with an electronic pass card provided by a School Board member.
“That would be me,” Patrick Strong of Lacon confirmed when contacted Wednesday.
Strong is the father of one of the students.

A Marshall County sheriff’s deputy had become suspicious after spotting two
cars at the rural Varna site about 10 p.m, said Sheriff Rob Russell. The
students “ran down the hall” as an officer approached the building and later
told police “they were playing hide and seek,” Russell said.

After dean of students and athletic director Joe Mintus came to the school, the
students “were escorted out” after explaining how they got in, said Principal
Rolf Sivertsen.

“One School Board member used bad judgment and gave it to one of his kids to
come out and play basketball,” Sivertsen said

Depite rumors about a “break-in,” there was no forced entry and no evidence of
vandalism or any other crime, Russell emphasized. No charges were filed, and
“it’s a school issue for now,” he said.

Nor will the students be disciplined, Sivertsen said. He acknowledged “a lot of
people feel that the kids should be.”

“I personally feel that the students were the victims of a bad choice by an
adult,” Sivertsen said.

Sivertsen would not identify the board member or students. But Strong and
another parent, Kelly Bogner of Lacon, confirmed that their respective sons, 16
and 17, had been among the three girls and three boys.

Strong said he had given them permission to go to the school to play 3-on-3
basketball and planned to join them about 20 minutes later but was contacted
about the incident before that. He said he had taken students there in the
past, though never so late.

“I normally don’t send them to the school by themselves,” he added.

Bogner, who contacted the Journal Star, echoed Sivertsen’s comment about “bad
judgment” by Strong and said the students had gone to the school “on a wild
hare.” Asked about Strong’s intention to join them, she said, “I don’t know if
I knew that or not.”

Bogner suggested putting the situation in perspective by contrasting it with,
for instance, kids caught at a drinking party. “They shot hoops and they played
flashlight tag,” she said.

Two non-involved parents who called the Journal Star said the episode raised
questions about preferential treatment of a board member’s son. Sivertsen
denied that had ever happened.

“I have disciplined the children of current board members and school
officials,” he said.

Sivertsen added the episode prompted a tightening of procedures on pass cards,
which previously had been given to volunteers in school activities as well as
district employees. Board members are not given cards, but Strong had one
because of his involvement with a baseball program.

“I accept some of the blame for this because I should have been more careful,”
Sivertsen said.

Strong said he probably won’t request another card now, but he disagreed with
Sivertsen’s assessment of lax control of the cards. He said he had been
bringing kids into the gym for more than 20 years as part of a summer baseball
program.

“I don’t think there’s a security problem,” he said.

Gary L. Smith can be reached at 686-3041 or state@pjstar.com.

——————————

————————————————–

Showing 1-15 of 65 Comments
BJ
April 23, 2007 - 09:13
Subject:
This is a bunch of crap, First of all all you people who say oh worry about
your own kids well they do, Tis is why they are mad cause there kids are
kidding mistreated, For instance Mr. joe friday mintus was trying to hang me by
the throat for something i didnt even do so go figure, Also some of my buddies
had came on to school grounds and did absolutely nothing but step foot on
school grounds and got suspended for three days, Now you tell me were the right
is for some kids to come into the school and claim they are going to play
basketball when you need either gym key and the key to turn lights on good
luck!!!!! What some people need to realize is that there are lies and stories
being told to save peoples asses.

P.S. who ever told the story about Ms. Fennel that is a sack of bs. Just cause
you are getting in trouble dosent meen hey lets make a story up about some one,
take the fault like a couple of real men and get it over with.

bllaaahhh
April 22, 2007 - 23:43
Subject:
im pretty sure that 99% of the people who recieve the PJStar have no idea where
Midland is.. and they probably don’t care either.. let it go

jack
April 22, 2007 - 20:25
Subject:
WHERE IS MIFLAND HIGH SCHOOL?
jack
April 22, 2007 - 20:23
Subject:
SCHOOL IS COOL

laseb
April 22, 2007 - 20:17
Subject:
First of all. The school board member who gave the key to the kids was wrong.
If you are going to let kids into a public building, or any other locked
facility then you need to be there to be responsible, no if and’s or but’s
about it. The key should have never left his hands !!! Secondly, kids that age
should have had the common sense to know that they were doing something that
could be considered “unkosher” to say the least. If they had any good common
sense at all they would not have entered the building without the proper adult
supervision. Thirdly, how many tax payers want to hear that thier tax dollars
are being spent to support the playground of a chosen few and risk the learning
and teaching abilities of everyone else. This whole situation lacks the better
judgement of good ole common sense on the part of everyone invovled.
The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow….somebody please teach some
common sense….even to the good one’s!!

unknown
April 22, 2007 - 18:45
Subject:
This is stupid. Let it go.

joe blow
April 22, 2007 - 17:42
Subject: this is stupid
First of all i would like to say that midland high school is a joke and joe
mintes and rolf sivertson are jokes i have gone to mifland high and there are a
diffrence in how the good kids get treated and the kids who are not as fortunate
as others the truth is and i know for a fact is they werent out there playing
tag or shooting hoops they went out there to stay the night and they had no
reason to and i highly doubt matt strongs dad was comeing out to the high
school to shoot hoops i think some one was telling some one some bs there and
another thing that gets me is all you people worry about is whos kids are doing
what and you need to open your eyes and pay attention to your own kids cause not
every ones kids are perfect
go good kids
April 21, 2007 - 15:16
Subject:
The issue at hand it not whether they were playing tag or “3 on 3″, they were
given permission to be there and these kids should not be punished because of
poor judgement by an adult.

go good kids
April 21, 2007 - 14:43
Subject:
How did that student get himself or herself dragged down? They were playing
hide and seek or tag or shooting hops. I don’t think those kids did anything
wrong, again they were handed a pass by a parent/school board member and if
that was me and I was given a pass to the school and was told it was ok, by my
parent, I would of done the same thing!

Reply to go good kids
bg
April 21, 2007 - 14:48
Subject:
according to pat strong they were supposed to be playing “3 on 3″ i believe..in
the gym not playing tag in the hall way.
unknown
April 21, 2007 - 14:27
Subject:
I think this has gotten out of hand. Does Ms. Fennell remember when her
daughter was drunk and wrecked her car, was pulled from the car by some
friends, and it was shoved under the rug, because her mom is dating a cop. Go
figure!!!!!!!!! Midland has good students, good teachers, good school board,
and Mr. Srversten is the best we have had for many years. At least these kids
were not drinking like some of the ones that rented a room in Peoria to get
drunk instead of going to Post Prom.

Reply to unknown
bg
April 21, 2007 - 14:31
Subject:
good school board members dont give out keys to their kids and good
administration doesnt give out keys to school board members and then not offer
them to the rest of the public
Reply to unknown
bllaaahhh
April 22, 2007 - 23:38
Subject:
you know.. this is perfect sense.. she got pulled from the car by her FRIENDS.
so why is it that they kept their mouth shut so she wouldn’t get introuble, how
come they don’t do the same for their friends? just an outside opinion.. i’ve
been through life for awhile and know damn well that u back eachother up.. stop
acting like 2 year olds.
bg
April 21, 2007 - 13:27
Subject:
o.k. seriously everyone this is alot of hype over what seems at first to be
nothing. The fact of the matter is this isnt the first time people have
appeared to get favored over others. This event appears to have been the straw
that broke the camels back. I will repeat for those people that dont know about
this district then you are right this all seems rather pointless but for those
of us that had to go to this district and put up with the crap of having to
watch the kids with the right last name get treated better than those that
didnt have the right family then we think this is a big deal. If it was
happening to you you’d be pissed to and dont lie and say that you wouldnt. O.k.
you can lie all you want thier is nothing that one can do about that but
honestly if you think this is nothing of importance then why take the time to
post any comment at all? I’m just saying that i’m tired of the crap,i’m tired
of hearing about 2 people doing the exact same thing w/ the exact same type of
“criminal” background and one person getting a worse punishement or hell being
the only one to get a punishment. Now you think that that is fair then you have
serious ethical issues that you need to confront on your own. But for the
majority of the human race i think that they would agree that favortism is crap
(unless of course you are the one being favored).

Editor’s note: Bill again. The last thing I want to do is encourage the PJS to stop running comments. But I also want to encourage them to stop taking down comments. I can pretty much see what was happening. No doubt some poor editor was sick of fielding calls and playing referee and just said, in frustration, to take the whole damn thing down. Bad decision. The legal standard now is that comments sections, for bloggers AND for mainstream media online versions, an essentially an open forum, and the site owners are free from libel. The people who make false and defamatory comments are the ones who need to be held accountable.

Online media is here to stay. The general public has to get used to the fact. By catering to those who demand that unflattering comments be taken down, the PJS just delays the inevitable realization of this fact.

Wow, 154 comments gone in one swoop. And when I think of the grief I used to go through deciding to remove just one comment.