Dear Editor,
Reading the headline
”
Popular teen…
”
I had to roll my eyes. Just because a person is popular should
the sense of loss be greater?
Dear Editor,
Reading the headline “Popular teen…” I had to roll my eyes. Just because a person is popular should the sense of loss be greater?
I instantly made a connection to the Kinkel girl’s death and her article “GHS cheerleader killed in car accident.” I am suspicious over why the deaths and lives of these youths have been so highly celebrated. I soon found the attention not a celebration of their lives but more of a celebration of the status society values and grants privilege to: the “popular” jock, the “popular” cheerleader.
Indeed, these deaths are tragic and I am sure these folks were great people. However, if (hypothetically speaking) an underacheiving, member of a gang, “unpopular” Mt. Madonna High student were killed under the same conditions, would there still be a sense of loss (for the community) so much so that homage would have to be paid on the front page of the Gilroy Dispatch? I would venture to say no.
A. Peña, Puyallup, WA
Editor’s note: There’s no question that value judgments on news stories are made every day. Erin Kinkel and Lovell Keith “JR” Adams were clearly given special attention certainly because of the tragic circumstances surrounding their untimely deaths, but also because of the positive impact they clearly had on the people around them.
