Last night a person or some people broke into one of the girls’ dormitory and stole one or two laptop computers and some mobile phones. Several students claim they saw the person in their rooms. The thief or thieves escaped, either out a balcony or another way. There was a meeting with the student body, teachers, AUW administration and the head or heads of security.
I didn’t attend. I did, however, get the nascent AUW newspaper reporter staff out on the story. I hope to have a story ready in two days; this is about as good a crash case in breaking news as I can imagine. Some reporters are talking to students involved; others are getting student reactions; one girl is the point man for talking with AUW security; another is getting teacher reactions. It’s quite the team. I had at least four taking notes during the meeting.
It’s a strange feeling to be viewing these sad, scary events through a journalistic eye, and at the same time getting the students to do so too. A lot of people are rightfully emotional about this issue, and hopefully we can capture that in our story. Nonetheless, I, and we journalists, have to distance ourselves from it, and that seems to be the opposite of what everyone around us is doing.
I don’t want to talk about what happened; I don’t feel it’s the right thing to do, but I hope to get a copy of the story available to my readers when it gets done.
