Editorial | The ugly parts of this job | Kris Hill

Cases of sexual abuse and misconduct seem to be everywhere this year.

Nationally the allegations against former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky as well as the accusations against Bernie Fine, a former assistant mens basketball coach at Syracuse University, have caused far-reaching waves in education and athletics.

Locally, we have dealt with two cases in the Kent School District, one which eventually ended in a former Kentlake teacher serving an eight month jail sentence for sexual misconduct with a student while a second case alleging misconduct by Kent-Meridian teacher (who lives in Black Diamond) is just at the start of the process.

And recently I’ve been hearing rumors swirling about another case I may be reporting on in the near future.

At this point, I am exhausted by covering these kinds of cases, as well as the coverage of them.

Once upon a time when I was a young journalist working at a weekly near Las Vegas, I broke a story about a priest abusing boys in his parish, and initially the thrill of beating the two dailies and all of the local TV stations to the story was a rush.

Then the story came out. I got my first death threat, and the reality of reporting those kinds of stories sunk in.

Plus, I have been through some hell in my life, so it’s hard to report on children who have been victimized. It hits a little too close to home.

In Las Vegas I handed that story off to another reporter who seemed to be emotionally equipped to handle it.

If I never get another story that involves an adult — especially a coach or teacher — harming a child, particularly in a sexual manner, it will be too damn soon.

These stories wear on journalists. All of us. Our loved ones wonder why we aren’t eating or sleeping and why we are constantly in a foul mood.

The reporting work that goes on, especially the confidential meetings with sources who are providing background so we can understand the big picture, is emotionally draining.

Add to that the effect it has on my relationships with people. Having been in the community for six years, and given the way I cover schools, I have become deeply connected to people affected by these situations. Conflicts arise because of these stories and due to their sensitivity it can be hard to resolve them.

And so, I can’t even imagine what it must be like to walk in the shoes of those who are directly impacted by the situation that led to the stories we write, because if I am suffering then it must be a million times worse for the victims and those surrounding them.

But, we have to write these stories, as grueling and painful as it can be otherwise nothing will ever be learned. Policies will never be changed. And children who should be protected as a result of these situations may not be kept from harm, so to not report on these things, to not hold people accountable at every level, to not use the newspaper to put public pressure on organizations to make change to prevent further victimization is wrong.

On a side note, I’ve been doing some research recently and discovered Washington state has a shield law for news media, which was passed in 2007. It provides “absolute privilege” which was described to mean to be the same as attorney-client privilege or doctor-patient confidentiality. I can’t, except for under very extreme and narrow circumstances, be compelled to testify about the identity or information confidential sources have provided me during the course of gathering information for a story. I’ve never had to know about this because I haven’t covered stories that might require me to invoke the shield saw prior to its passage nearly five years ago.

In any case, these cases have led to daily conversations in our newsrooms in Kent and Maple Valley.

Dennis Box and I have been discussing the need to take a step back and look at what’s been going on in the Kent School District from a higher altitude. When you have two cases like we’ve seen in the past year where there are so many parallels it makes you wonder what happened. How did those boundaries get so blurred and what can be done going forward to make it clear to parents, students and staff exactly what are the boundaries as well as what to do when things get fuzzy?

There have been discussions in our office about the idea of tackling this in a series in the future. It’s a strategy I think would be a good one to take going forward.

Personally, I am bowing out of any further coverage of these stories in the Kent Schools, for the sake of my relationships with others, as well as my own sanity.

Thankfully between the Kent and Covington-Maple Valley Reporter staffs, we have four other people who can handle this stuff from now on, and I can stand on the sidelines offering moral support.