EDITOR’S NOTE By Hank Kalet
There are few things more difficult in this business than writing about a teenager whose life has come to a tragic end.
But that is what we have been forced to do this week.
A South Brunswick High School student died earlier this week in a horrific crash on Route 1. Police say the crash appears to have been intentional, an attempt by the 16-year-old driver to commit suicide. The driver survived and now faces criminal charges. The passenger, 15-year-old sophomore Richard VonDeesten, was killed in the wreck.
We have spent the last few days tracking down friends of the teens, talking to students, teachers and others who knew them, hoping to paint a picture of their short lives and give people a sense of who they were.
Our job was difficult for many reasons. First, South Brunswick has been at the center of a media feeding frenzy for the last few days. In addition to the two weeklies and three dailies that write regularly about the township, there have been stories in the New York Post, The Trentonian and on New 12 New Jersey and all the New York television news programs.
More importantly, however, no one likes to do these kinds of stories. They are painful and difficult.
I remember taking pictures of a wreck on Route 1 at New Road about 12 years ago. A tractor-trailer crashed into the back of a car, pushing it into the cars in front of it and killing the family inside. I remember one shot, in particular, of a busted child’s car seat. The picture has stayed with me, haunting me.
Another time, I was writing a story about a man who committed suicide by driving his car into the Delaware & Raritan Canal. I called his family and identified myself to the woman who answered the phone. She promptly hung up. I couldn’t blame her.
But we make the effort, knowing ultimately that in giving families and friends a chance to make their grief public, a chance to offer their thoughts, their insights, their memories of their loved ones, we may have helped them take a baby step in the grieving process.
I won’t kid anyone. We also do this because it is news, because the reading public wants to know and understand what has happened and is happening in their town.
We try to approach these difficult stories with sensitivity. We will not, as some of the other news outlets have done, offer unsubstantiated information as fact and attribute it to "authorities." It is this kind of unsourced reporting that strains the public’s trust of reporters and the profession in general.
And we will not sensationalize our coverage, though we will not shy away from reporting the facts even if they might be difficult to swallow. Not everyone will agree with our approach, but we come to this story as we come to all stories, with an open mind, a reverence for the truth and a respect for our readers.
When the media frenzy passes, the South Brunswick Post will still be here. Our interest in the community whether it is in the high school, the YMCA or some other facet of the South Brunswick is not fleeting. We are a part of it.
The Editor’s Note column will run as often as necessary as a way to explain the workings of the South Brunswick Post to our readers. So, please, send me your questions about the paper, about the news business, about the decisions we’ve made and any suggestions you have. I’ll try and answer as many as I can in future Editor’s Notes. Call me at (732) 329-9214, write me at P.O. Box 309, Dayton, N.J. 08810 or e-mail me at [email protected].

