I am presuming that it is the Monitor’s editors who choose the wording of headlines. To the editor who wrote this headline for the Nov. 1 paper – “Report: Schools a ‘hunting ground’ for predators” – shame on you.
As I am sure you know, many Concord citizens (and I am sure others) have been closely following the situation with the Concord schools. We have been waiting to learn what the investigator’s report has to say. I think it would be fair to say that your headline very strongly implied that the investigator concluded that the schools in Concord were hunting grounds for sexual predators. One reads that headline and conjures up a horrible image of an army of sexual predators specifically targeting Concord schools for their prey.
One has to read well into the article (and past the first page) to learn that what the investigator in fact said was that, generally speaking, schools (i.e. all schools everywhere – not just in Concord) were hunting grounds for sexual predators. She was not specifying Concord schools.
The Monitor is a part of this community. This community is struggling with a terrible thing in its school system right now. It is the Monitor’s obligation to report on this situation responsibly. Printing completely misleading and out-of-context front page headlines solely designed to grab eyeballs is a gross dereliction of that responsibility. People will read that headline and decide not to come here with their skills, businesses and tax dollars. It also causes me to question how accurate and unbiased you have been in your reporting on this situation to date.
You are harming the very community you are a part of. Shame on you.
BILL PRIBIS
Concord