Nothing But The Non-Facts, Please

A pet peeve of mine is when people perpetuate misconceptions. I think I have mentioned before that I work in a high school that is regularly one of the top 1000 public high schools listed in the annual Newsweek issue. We reguarly win awards for a variety of different things; we have raised over $15,000 for Camp Kemo, a summer camp for children with cancer, in the first two months of school; we just won the Summa Cum Laude Award for Excellent Improvement for exceeding the state's average increase in composite ACT scores over three years. These things aren't always publicized. But I guess it isn't always the great stuff that the media deems newsworthy. Instead, it's generally the bad. Unfortunately, in this case, it's bad and the untrue.

The following is the news article, copied and pasted from the local newspaper website.


Gun-toting student arrested at ________ ________ High School

A 14-year-old student at ________ _________ High School was arrested Tuesday morning at the school after being found with a 9 mm pistol tucked in his waistband.

____ County Sheriff Leon Lott said the youth was charged with carrying a weapon on school grounds and the unlawful carrying of a pistol. He was taken to the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

Lott said other students, alarmed Monday when they learned a fellow student was carrying a pistol, told their parents, who called the sheriff's department.

"We found out about this from the good kids," said Lott, who has had deputies in schools for more than a decade. "This has been the goal for 13 years. Schools are safe zones. Kids know who to go to now."

Bullets for the pistol were found in a bag in a classroom.

Lott said deputies continue to question why the youth had a gun. At this point, Lott said, he has no plans to propose metal detectors for county schools. "This appears to be an isolated incident."

This is not the true story. And unfortunately, this is the story the public will read about, hence perpetuating the negative image our school already has. The real story is that our high school houses a special program for middle school students. This special middle school program is in fact located on our high school's campus, but they have their own separate facility, administration, bell system, everything. They are absolutely not connected to our school. They just happen to be located about 150 yards away. The student was not one of ours. And it is so discouraging knowing the hard work and effort that our faculty, staff and student body put in every day here. To have the press misreport the news is so disheartening.

Another bump in the road. We can overcome this as well.