Community Corner

Editor's Notebook: Feeling Bullied By the National Media

We have not nor will we release the "slut list" to anyone.

UPDATE: The Today Show ran a piece about the hazing issues on Thursday. The information obtained about "the slut list" in the story and any other national story is from the article we ran Monday. Again, we have not released "the list" to any news organization or individual. We will not release the information to anyone.

Original column:

By now I'm sure many of our readers have seen the Good Morning America piece about the issues of hazing at Millburn High School.

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I want to assure everyone, we did not release the now infamous "slut list" to Good Morning America. They asked, we said no. Since then I have received several other requests from other national media outlets for "the list." I told all of them the same thing: No.

We have no intentions to share this information with anyone because of the delicate information that is contained on the list. It includes the names of 21 freshmen girls, all 13 and 14 years old. Not only do I fear someone may list all of their names, I don't want anyone's family to be stalked by the media. As I wrote on Tuesday morning, our intentions of writing the story about the list was not to embarrass or out anyone. It was about educating parents to have a better opinion about the issue.

Find out what's happening in Millburn-Short Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But once the information is out of my hands, it would be out of my control of how it's handled. I would never forgive myself if it was handled inappropriately.

The irony here is the arguments I hear from the media folks who call me asking for the list. Hazing and bullying is a national issue, I've been told, and is worth the national coverage.

Do these folks realize they are bullying me for information?

No matter how much they try to negotiate with me or try to convince me, I won't be releasing the information. Be confident we're trying to protect people's privacy. I hope others who have copies of "the list" follow suit.

And I'm hoping soon we can move the discussion on to other things facing the Millburn School District. Did you know there's a superintendent search that needs to take place?


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