A heavily reported and much edited package of stories, photographs and statistics about Sandalwood High School was widely praised for its look at the challenges facing a troubled school.
The three-part series drew criticisms as well.
Front-page headlines announced the stories on Aug. 5 and 6: “Crackdown at Duval’s most notorious school” and “Outrage at the school’s ‘culture of violence.’ ”
Among those voicing criticism was Bob Fair of Mandarin.
“I think it could be said the essence of the story that Sandalwood was a school out of control was conveyed mainly in the highlighting in the crime rate chart, bold headlines (most notorious school, culture of violence), and the line ‘Sandalwood recorded the most fights and battery incidents during the school year and ranked near the top in reports of alcohol and drug abuse, trespassing and truancy violations,” Fair wrote.
“Heavy stuff, but just not so,” Fair declared.
He was on target, in my view, with observations that should give serious pause to editors.
But in written responses to my questions, editors defended the headlines and the presentation of statistics, for the most part.
And in response to a routine accuracy questionnaire, the school’s principal, Vicki Schultz, said although she “never wanted the story to take place,” the reporter, Tia Mitchell, “was both thorough and fair.”
A graphic that ran on the second day of the series gave the raw number of incidences of crime at Duval’s 19 high schools last year, but did not indicate the number of students.
The “High school crime stats” graphic showed Sandalwood’s 3,200 students led in “fights and batteries” with 58; in “felony arrests” with 24 and in “misdemeanor arrests” with 82, according to Sheriff’s Office data.
But Fair compared the crime data chart to school population “to get a per capita look for every school – the ratio of students to incidents. The frequency of risk factor, if you will.”
If school size is taken into account, Sandalwood ranks first in only one category, misdemeanor arrests. It would rank fourth in fights and batteries, sixth in felony arrests, seventh in drugs and alcohol, and 12th in truancy.
Asked why school populations were not provided and whether that would have been fair, Metro Editor Marilyn Young responded: “Although the graphic did not mention Sandalwood’s size, that factor was included several times over the three-day series.”
Failure to provide perspective to statistics shortchanged readers, since a little analysis shows Sandalwood to be much more like other schools than the raw numbers would suggest.
Sandalwood was proclaimed “Duval’s most notorious school” in the headline, even though no reference to it being “notorious,” let alone “most notorious” appeared in the story.
Who decided it was the county’s “most notorious” school?
“Several people, including senior editors, were involved in writing the headlines,” Young replied. “We felt there was no question that Sandalwood’s reputation meets the definition of notorious.”
Because Sunday’s headline reference to “culture of violence” was in quotes, readers should expect to find it attributed in the story.
The writer described Circuit Judge A.C. Soud’s remarks when a student appeared in court on a charge of sexual assault, which was later dropped: “Sandalwood was out of control, he said, and had a culture of violence.”
But did the judge really say the school was out of control and had a culture of violence?
In a Feb. 18 story, the judge was quoted as saying there was a “culture of law disobedience” at the school but “culture of violence” was not mentioned.
He asked: “How do students come to the point where they think they can beat a kid into seizure or rape a fellow student right on campus?”
For parents sending a student to the school, “there’s a good possibility that kid can be harmed and become a victim of a significant crime,” he said.
And while conceding he didn’t keep statistics, he said “we get a bunch of kids charged with felonious conduct coming from Sandalwood compared with other high schools.”
The judge’s quotes “clearly described a culture of violence,” responded Young. But other editors said the quote marks should not have been used with “culture of violence.”
Since he didn’t use the term, it was inappropriate to report he said it or to wrap such a phrase in headline quotes.
To label the school “Duval’s most notorious” based on the opinion of editors and to describe it as having a “culture of violence” based on an interpretation of a judge’s comments was unwarranted, in my view.
“I think we could have used more exact words, better words,” said Managing Editor Mike Richey, who generally praised and defended the series. “I also think one could make that case of any number of stories and headlines in any number of newspapers, periodicals and media every day.”
