KWES TV's "School Security" Series: Don't shoot the messenger...
Category: Local...
Posted Sunday, February 09, 2003 at 01:41 PM [GMT-6]

I never thought I'd say this, but judging by some of the reactions to Channel 9's recent "School Security" series, the local media are going to have to start simplifying their stories; they're getting too sophisticated for their audience.

I didn't see every segment of the report by weekend anchor Jennifer Mayerle, but what I saw was very interesting. In summary, the station sent a man with a consumer-level camcorder to several MISD and ECISD campuses to see what sort of access he could gain without "official" credentials and before getting caught or challenged. His actions were self-documenting via the same video camera that often seemed to work as an excuse for his wandering down school halls...the few times he was questioned. I was surprised, but not flabbergasted, by just how often and far he was able to get anywhere he wanted in the buildings.

The station then showed this footage to school administration and board members in Odessa and Midland, and captured their reactions. Those folks without exception seemed sincerely appreciative of the efforts to highlight potential security weaknesses.

However, judging by some of the email received by the station, and one letter published in the Reporter-Telegram this morning, the benefits of this approach were totally lost on some of our citizenry. The letter writer, in particular, was incensed at the "dishonesty" of the station, apparently feeling that we might as well stop teaching our kids right and wrong, given such deception on the part of our heretofore trusted media.

I couldn't disagree more. There's no room for assuming the best in people when it comes to something as important as school security. Guess what? The bad guys lie, deceive, fail to comply with instructions, disregard authority and in general flaunt all our conceptions of acceptable social convention. That's why we call them bad. I would hope that parents would be grateful that the holes in the system were probed by a harmless investigation, rather than confirmed by a real evildoer.

I'm not saying the coverage was perfect. It fell a little short in terms of follow-through; I would like to have seen them wait to air it until after they visited with the school administrations and after a second attempt a week or two later to duplicate the unauthorized entrances...a "before and after" story would have been even more interesting and, possibly, comforting to parents. But this doesn't detract from the validity of what they did run (and I understand - if not totally agree with - the desire to hit the air with a substantive story as quickly as possible; patience is not generally a news media virtue).

But, as I said at the beginning, all of this effort is wasted on an audience that just doesn't get it. This is one time when the media outlet deserves better.