The Facebook friends were right: Lance Lundsten killed himself.
In January, the Alexandria Echo Press blasted TV station KSAX for reporting “speculation” that since the 18-year-old Miltona resident “was so young, he must have taken his own life. That led to more speculation: That he took his life because he was being bullied at school.”
A KSAX Lundsten story
Actually, there was more to it. According to KSAX, friends on a Facebook memorial page said Lundsten was bullied at school because he was gay.
That fed into the culture war about targeting homophobia in school anti-bullying programs; even U.S. Sen. Al Franken weighed in.
After initially ascribing the death to a "medical condition," the Echo Press urged everyone to wait for a toxicology report. On Monday, it came back: mixed drug ingestion — a suicide, according to the Douglas County medical examiner.
So how did the Echo Press report the latest news? With a 122-word Wednesday story noting the diagnosis.
Orientation off-limits
Did the official verdict provide an opening for the newspaper to reference Lundsten’s sexual orientation? No. In fact, the Echo Press has never mentioned it. If by some chance Alexandrians read only their local paper, they have no clue homosexuality is part of the discussion.
Explains editor Al Edenloff, “We did not mention sexual orientation because of the simple fact that we don’t mention the sexual orientation of any others who die unexpectedly. We don’t report if they are straight, gay, bi, whatever.”
Well, yes, but if orientation played a role here — especially if it underscores the need for a public-policy response to help other bullied students — isn’t it worth an exception?
Edenloff says the paper did look into the bullying allegations “and found them based largely on rumor and Facebook speculation. We’ve talked to others, including the family, other students, school leaders and friends who said there was no indication that Lance was being bullied.”
He adds, “There was no note found. It’s likely no one will ever know for sure what drove Lance to take the drugs that ended his life. We stick to the facts in our reporting, not gossip and speculation.”
'Selective facts'
In January, KSAX criticized the Echo Press for relying on a family member’s declaration that drugs and alcohol weren’t involved, rather than talking to the medical examiner.
As KSAX news director Cristi Jessee told MPR’s Bob Collins, “Selective facts have been reported, but the most important facts released by official sources in this case are, deliberately it seems, ignored. The truth is not always comfortable. But journalists should not ignore facts in an effort to comfort a grieving family.”
Assuming the Echo Press has now done a thorough job of investigating, I’d argue their inability to confirm gay-bullying allegations regarding Lundsten merits a story.
I understand Edenloff not wanting to put inaccurate information about a dead teenager on the public record. But high-intensity chatter is already out there, and the facts can be handled sensitively. Correcting public perception can be more important as creating it.
A focus on the living?
I would note that KSAX’s stories — here, here and here — contain no first-hand interviews confirming Lundsten was bullied, much less for being gay. Unverified Facebook comments, including Lundsten's purported page acknowleging his homosexuality, comprise the public record.
To me, Facebook can provide legitimate leads, but especially in a sensitive story like this, reporters must confirm real identities.
The TV station did do an on-camera interview with a gay Alexandria student who said he was bullied. However, there was no indication he knew Lundsten.
Jessee says that's because "the focus was never intended to be on Lance's death, but as a catalyst for a larger discussion. The circumstances of Lance's death became the focus after the Echo Press editorial."
She adds that the Echo Press and the Alexandria school district still have not acknowledged concerns about orientation-related bullying that have emerged since Lundseth's death.
Jessee concedes, "Did we make mistakes in the way we covered this? Yes, we did. But we wanted to start a conversation; the fact that a [Facebook] group formed showed there was a bullying problem out there. The Echo Press and school district want to hang their hat [on the narrow circumstances of Lundsten's death] to negate the conversation."
By the way, Sen. Franken will announce today he’s reintroducing federal legislation to protect public school students from bullying due to sexual orientation or gender identity.
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Comments (5)
Thank you for this article. I live in Alexandria. There has been a quite buzz around this young mans death. It is devastating to know the truth. I had hoped it was a medical issue because I can't stomach the thought of what this boy lived through. I will share your article with everyone. Perhaps it will be a step towards growth and maturity desperately needed in this community.
Anyone dying of any cause at this age is tragedy enough.
However, the pro-gay agenda will stop at NOTHING to advance it's cause, and "bullying" is their latest spearhead.
It is not the role of Franken or any other elected official to meddle in these types of issues, yet they do solely at the relentless and awful behest of the pro-gay lobby.
Silence is not so golden when it comes to perpetuating the shaming of homosexuals, whether it's intentional or not. At least there is some acknowledgment now of more than selective facts in this case.
My sister lived and raised her family in Alexandria. My nephew was bullied because his autism. It's time to recognize that bullying exists and must be dealt with regardless of the basis for bullying. The first comment acknowledges this; the second denies it. It's not a pro-gay agenda-- it's ANTI-BULLYING.
Obviously SOME posters, here, have never been bullied, day after day, simply for being the people God created them to be. Some of these same posters have had the ability to be compassionate and empathetic enough to realize what effect such actions (perhaps even their own actions) might have had on those who are routinely targeted for bullying.
Indeed, underlying such demands that bullies must be left alone to bully others as they see fit, there almost seems to be a plea that appeals to the rest of us not to tell bullies that they are/were wrong to abuse others, because they just couldn't deal with having to face the fact that they did something (else) wrong.
Sadly, the ones most likely to bully others are those whose own deep-seated insecurities, often regarding the same issues they're using to target others, are caused by the implication on the part of the people around them that they would be rejected, scorned, and likely become the targets of bullying if they ever revealed the truth about their own carefully-hidden selves (perhaps even hidden from themselves).
In this way, bullying feeds upon itself, in that it victimizes, not only those who are its targets, but others who know, within themselves that if the truth about them were known, they, too would become targets for constant bullying.
Sadly, many of those who fear there might be reason for them to become the targets of bullying if the truth about them were known, choose to become bullies themselves and are often among the most cruel in bullying others whom they identify as exhibiting the characteristics they know to exist within themselves; characteristics which they would NEVER allow to be revealed (if they could help it).
In other words, although bullies may believe they are exhibiting strength (and even have the visceral reaction that, in beating down, verbally or physically, the unacceptable facets of their own personalities that they identify as existing in others - or that they project onto innocent others - they are successfully defeating their own unacceptable personality traits)...
Those who feel the need to bully are really demonstrating their own weakness and the lack of courage to face and accept God's creation of themselves.
In all these ways bullying, over a wide variety of issues, becomes a cancer within any community, spreading, as it does, an entire collection of unhealthy responses to the natural variation God designs into EVERY community, and massively interferes with the ability of that community's people to relate to each in healthy ways which enable each individual and the entire community to fulfill the purposes God designed them to fulfill.
If it is not stopped, it increasingly damages both those doing the bullying and those bullies' victims in ways that may be very difficult to overcome in their adult lives.
But beyond simply outlawing bullying, an approach which may help deal with the issues of those being bullied but generally fails to deal with the problems which exist withing bullies, and may even amplify those problems, perhaps the most effective ways of short-circuiting bullying are constantly overlooked: teaching youngsters to be emotionally, psychologically, and mentally strong and secure, making sure each has a reliable source of love and acceptance in their lives, and that, when in need, there is a non-judgmental support system in place to which youngsters can turn when family members, friends, church and/or the wider community are not sufficient to, not likely to, or cannot be trusted to meet their needs.
Creating such a support network for youngsters helps ensure that no one feels the need to bully, that when bullying occurs the psychological insecurities underlying the need of the bully to BE a bully are addressed, and the needs of those who might be the victims of bullying behavior are met in ways that make sure no longer-term damage occurs as the result.
Bullying is, after all, the SYMPTOM of the deeper problems which occur in communities where the emotional/psychological/mental health needs of youngsters are not being adequately met.
I fear that Alexandria, where I live, is one of those communities, but it is hardly an exception. Far MORE exceptional are those communities where such is not the case.