ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997 TAG: 9704210006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: From the newsroom
SOURCE: Rich Martin
A couple of readers have questioned the way we handled an April 11 story about a rumor concerning teen suicides in Botetourt County.
The story, by staff writer Matt Chittum, described a rumor that had spread that 11 Lord Botetourt High School students had tried to take their lives since October. A youth minister mentioned the number at the funeral of a teen-ager who had committed suicide; The Fincastle Herald, the weekly county paper, repeated it in a news story.
School officials, counselors and the Sheriff's Office said the number was wildly exaggerated. All emphasized that the fact of one suicide was frightening enough. They also said that having to deal with rumors of a "suicide epidemic" could distract people from dealing with the real issues surrounding teen-age suicide.
The readers who had questions about our story came from different perspectives.
One caller who didn't leave his name said he thought we were insensitive to the family of the teen-ager who had died. Why was it necessary to report the story at all? he asked.
In a letter to the editor, Bonnie Davis said we seemed to point a finger at the youth minister as the "supposed originator" of the rumor. "The point is not how many, or who is saying how many, it is that any youth, one or more, feels there is no other option for them than suicide," Davis wrote.
The issue of suicide is a delicate and painful one, for society and for the newspaper. Generally, our policy on reporting suicides is intended to protect privacy: If a person takes his or her own life, in a private way and in a private place, we do not write a story. However, if the person is or has been a public figure - someone who had been in the public eye and whose death would be considered newsworthy - we write the story, and we report that the person killed himself.
We also report a suicide that occurs in a public setting, whether or not the person is a public figure. We try to be sensitive to the family and friends of the dead person, but we believe that readers expect us to tell them when something like this happens publicly.
Our policy on reporting teen suicides is the same; but when a young person kills himself, the issue becomes more complicated. An argument can be made that the newspaper should report the public or private death of any young person by violent or unnatural causes; if a young person takes his or her life, the community should know about it, and the newspaper should try to explain what happened and why. The countervailing argument is that a teen suicide should be treated no differently from any other: A family is grieving and doesn't need the newspaper's intrusion if the suicide took place in private.
We've written stories in the past about teen suicides because we think the public needs to know about them, their causes, and how they can be prevented. But in cases where the suicide was private, we've published stories only with the families' permission.
In keeping with our general policy, we did not write a story about the suicide of the Lord Botetourt student. When the rumors started spreading, however - from a pulpit and in the county newspaper - our obligation was to tell the public what the facts were. If 11 high school students had, in fact, tried to kill themselves this school year, people needed to know that and be able to act on it. Conversely, if the number was exaggerated, people needed to know that, as well.
The anonymous caller's complaint that we were insensitive to the family of the dead teen-ager is hard for us to deal with. We tried to talk to the family, without success. We didn't want to add to their pain, but we also knew that a story of public importance needed to be told.
After lengthy discussion, we decided to go ahead with our story, without identifying the teen-ager by name.
Chittum's story dispelled the rumor of 11 suicide attempts, without pointing a finger at anyone as the "supposed originator." (The youth minister was quoted that he'd heard the figure mentioned during a funeral home visitation.) But Chittum's story also made clear that everyone involved felt strongly that one suicide attempt - successful or not - was too many.
In her letter, Davis said that if rumors can spur people to taking steps to help desperate youth, "then they have served a good purpose ..."
Rumors seldom serve good purpose. Our intent in reporting the story was to put the facts before the public. The reality of this story was chilling - and sad - enough without frightening people with rumors.
From the Newsroom is an occasional column in which senior editors talk about how we make decisions in the newsroom and about changes at The Roanoke Times.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB