Student Stabbed to Death at Coral Gables High School: Where's the Media?

Juan Carlos Rivera, a tenth grade student, was stabbed to death Tuesday in the courtyard of Coral Gables High School, Dade County, FL.

What began as a scuffle, over a girl, ended with Andy Jesus Rodriguez pulling a knife and stabbing Juan Carlos Rivera to death. Rodriguez knifed Rivera three times stabbing him in the chest, collarbone, and stomach.

Rodriguez ran away, but was immediately caught by the police. After questioning, Andy Jesus Rodriguez, age 17, was charged with second degree murder. According to Miami-Dade police, as quoted in the Miami Herald, the investigation into the murder of Juan Carlos Rivera will continue. Meanwhile, Rodriguez will be held in a Dade County jail.

Rivera's schoolmates must be in shock to have witnessed the attack and death of their friend Juan Carlos Rivera. Many watched helplessly as he lay in the courtyard gasping for his last breath, bleeding to death.

Where is the National Media Coverage?

Has school violence and murder become so commonplace that it no longer garners national attention? I follow the news all day and never heard anything about the Dade County High School stabbing. I am befuddled by the lack of coverage.

Has national politics and controversial name calling among adults become more important than the lives of our children, than the day to day violence that is going on in our schools?

I never once saw national coverage of the Miami Dade county murder on CNN or FOX News. One of the classic appeals of journalism is human interest stories. Of those, stories that highlight the plight of our children, education, and schools has historically been paramount.

Now, an even more important and tragic development has occurred and there is no time to give it a nod? Must news border on the spectacular in order for Nancy Grace to create a media campaign? Where is the "bold, fresh" voice of Bill O'Reilly speaking out as an advocate for our school children.

I am deeply moved by the stabbing at Coral Gables High School and equally disturbed that I had to hear about it from a friend. This story should be highlighted because we are losing our children while we argue politics like kids on a school ground, worry more about our money than the morals and values we are passing on to the next generation, and play gotcha journalism instead of pursing facts and stories in an unbiased manner.

The stabbing at Coral Gables High School is the ultimate human interest story. It is about our kids and kids like ours who attend similar public schools all over the nation. This story should serve as a springboard to reopen discussion of how to reach teens, stop violence, and protect students so that they can study in safety.

In the wake of this horrific crime and tragedy parents and students are left shocked, bewildered, grieved, and scared.

If any case proves local reporters on the ground in small and large towns all over America are still vital to the dissemination of news, this is it.

It's time we stop allowing cable to dictate to us what is news and what they believe is in our best interest.

Sources:

Student Charged with Murder in Coral Gables High Stabbing, Miami Herald