DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER

Don't shoot the messenger. That's a phrase that's come to mind often this
week. It seems that some people in Hartselle are upset with the newspaper
because of the way it covered the recent incident involving the collapse of
two students at Hartselle High School. At first, school officials said both
students tested negative for drugs. Then, the same officials came back and
said one of the students tested positive for marijuana. There's more than a
slight discrepancy between the two stories. It came to a head for us here
this week because the newspaper is working on a special section to honor
Coach William Booth on the occasion of his 500th baseball victory. Coach
Booth has received a lot of criticism for his dealings with the city
council following the incident. We're doing this section because, whatever
controversy is going on now, Coach Booth deserves recognition for his
accomplishments. Still, one of our customers said he wouldn't support the
section because "we didn't write anything positive" about Booth or School
Superintendent Lee Hartsell. I disagree.

There's no better place to recognize someone for positive accomplishments
than their local newspaper. When our athletic teams or schools do something
positive, we are the first ones to praise them. However, it is
irresponsible for a newspaper to ignore a story because some people don't
want it covered. It's not positive or negative coverage - it's just the
facts of the case. In the case involving the students and the board's
response, there are some major issues that need to be addressed. First,
Hartselle schools have no policy for handling drug-related situations such
as this one. It appears that the issue was handled on a haphazard basis -
no ambulance was called to transport the students to the hospital; no
official policy was in place for dealing with the aftermath; and
disciplinary measures were capricious. Second, there are major problems
when we can't trust our school officials. We shouldn't have to question who
knew what when or why people said the things they said. This whole matter
could have been handled - without invading a student's privacy - by telling
the truth from the beginning. That truth is that one of the students
involved failed a drug test. That's the bottom line and the messengers
shouldn't be shot for saying so.