Skip to main content

Guest Post: Better and Balanced Coverage


Today’s post comes from Oakland Mills Village Board Chair Jonathan Edelson. He wrote it in response to recent coverage of Oakland Mills High School in the Columbia Flier/Howard County Times. This piece by Andrew Michaels was originally posted online on December 11th, then appeared in the December 14th print/digital editions. Interestingly, it first ran under this:

 Howard County school leaders look to parents, training to combat violence

 Then, in print:

 County teachers training in conflict resolution

 Mr. Edelson raises some excellent points here. Recent discussions in Howard County about possible high school redistricting have exposed some ugly generalizations if not downright racist attitudes about “those students”from “those neighborhoods”. It’s extremely concerning that this article appears to feed that line of thinking rather than do the research necessary to place recent incidents in context.

*****

 Open up today's Flier. There is an article titled, "County teachers training in conflict resolution." That sounds like a good program. The article itself, however, leaves me feeling that we're seeing more of the same reporting about a couple of schools. Despite several hundred arrests at Howard County schools over the last few years, only two schools are named in this article, Oakland Mills High and Wilde Lake High. 

 I have to assume (because the article provides few facts about other schools) that things must be happening at other schools. Yes, two very recent events happened at OMHS and WLHS, but are these schools anomalies? Do we really know the gender of each student arrested, the level of school at which they were arrested, but not the school itself? If this is a county wide effort, why are only two schools named in the article? 

 If the analysts who work for me in my professional life were evaluating a program and turned this in to me, I would send it back. I would ask them if they even attempted to pull data on other schools or contact them. I would ask them what makes 2 schools out of 76 unique. 

 Wilde Lake's Principal should be commended for taking action to address an issue at his school. Instead, his letter to families is also used as easy headline fodder for reporters. I see similar laziness in reporting about Oakland Mills. The police released this information about the fight at OM just as they release information on dozens of other calls they receive each day. It didn't take much investigative journalism to highlight these two schools as exemplars of what may be a county-wide issue.

 So once again, I'll ask, is it just me, or do we need to push our local media to work a bit harder in their reporting on our schools and communities?

 I raised this in my remarks at this week's village board meeting, and the resounding response from my colleagues on the board was that we need to start pushing for better, balanced coverage now.
*****

 Mr. Edelson’s work appears here with his permission.


Comments are welcome here:

https://www.facebook.com/VillageGreenTownSquared/?ref=bookmarks

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

What Kids Are Thinking

  It’s a Monday in February, and if you guessed that a lot of Howard County students have the new cell phone policy on their minds, you’d be right. It will mean big changes and it will be stressful, no matter how much good we hope it will do in the long run. But on this particular Monday cell phones might not be top of mind, as amazing as that seems. Some kids will go to school wondering if they or family members will be seized by ICE. Some will fear that their parents’ employment will be purged by the ongoing rampage of Elon Musk and his cronies through Federal Government. Some fear heightened and renewed racism as programs that supprted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are vilified and destroyed.  Some worry that it soon won’t be safe for them to use the bathroom in school anymore. It goes without saying that some kids fear going to school every day because of the prevalence of school shootings.  And look! Here’s something new to fear. That old hate group, Libs of TikTo...
1 comment
Read more