Request for information not always a simple task
In the News
MARK ROSMAN
There are some things that drive school superintendents nuts and there are some things that drive newspaper editors nuts.

For example, it cannot make the Freehold Borough superintendent of schools feel good when she goes on an Internet message board and reads this posting about the Freehold Intermediate School:

"April 10th 2008, a number of FIS students brawled and pulled out razors threatening serious harm to one other. School Administration provided parents with diluted misinformation claiming they are 'addressing infractions.' Adding that 'students exercised very poor judgment resolving a conflict.' Students say the school has been growing dangerous throughout the school year."

I copied that passage verbatim from the Internet site where it was posted.

In an effort to follow up this serious allegation of violence, a News Transcript reporter contacted police in Freehold Borough.

Police told the reporter that on the date in question several students were about to have an altercation in the school, but they said the situation was broken up before any violence occurred. No one pulled a "razor" on anyone, according to the police. Police said that when the students were brought to the school office, it was discovered they were in possession of knives.

The police informed the reporter that the charges relating to the weapons have been referred to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office for review and said the school district was handling the discipline.

Now here's what bothers me as a newspaper editor. I would like to be able to inform our readers what happened to the students involved in this incident, but I am unable to do that because the superintendent just did not want to discuss the issue other than to say that administrators were following procedure.

We were not told what the procedure is.

I do not want to know the names of the students who were involved in this incident and neither I nor our reporter would ever ask for that information. We know that school officials cannot give us the names of the students who were involved in the altercation.

However, here are some questions that residents who send their children to the intermediate school might like to have answered by those in charge:

• What type of knives were the students found to be in possession of? There is a big difference between a 2-inch pen knife and a switchblade.

•Were the students who were found to be in possession of knives suspended from school for one or more days?

• Were these students permitted to return to the building after serving a suspension?

• Will they, or did they, have to undergo any type of counseling before being permitted to return to school?

• Do the students face the possibility of being permanently removed from the intermediate school?

I think those are fair questions to ask and to have answered by the top administrator in a school district.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I came across an Associated Press story out of Ann Arbor, Mich., on May 1 that reported a prank that was perpetrated by 13 members of a high school lacrosse team. The 13 members of the team painted their butts with one word each of a proposal that asked a girl to the prom.

The bottom-baring question asked, "Will you go to the prom with me? Yes or No?" According to theAssociated Press story, school officials reported that each offending team member was ordered to perform 20 hours of community service, each student was suspended from school for one day, and each student was suspended from an undetermined number of lacrosse games.

No secrets, no hassles; the students broke the rules and school administrators described how they were punished. It makes me wonder why all school administrators cannot just provide the same level of cooperation so that rumors of razor fights do not wind up as Internet fodder.

By the way, that girl in Michigan accepted the invitation to the prom. She signaled her desire to attend the event by patting the back of the player who had "Yes" painted on his behind.

Mark Rosman is the managing editor of the News Transcript.