MDS 4100 Communication Law Case Study: Privacy CASE STUDY: PRIVACY You are a reporter for WKRN-TV, covering local police activity as part of your beat. Your editor tells you to get over to McGavock High School as quickly as possible. An anonymous caller, saying she lives across the street from the public school, told a news editor she heard four or five gunshots coming from the school building as she was outside walking her dog. Within seconds, she says, students were running outside and screaming. A listen to the police band receiver in the newsroom indicates something is up at the school. You take a videographer and arrive on the scene about 1:30 p.m. Five or six Metro police cars are parked near the school, and an ambulance arrives seconds later as you get out of your car. The entrance to the school building is blocked off and police are guarding the area, admitting no one except authorities into the building. After questioning police, you confirm the fact there has been a shooting, but that’s as far as you get. You begin asking bystanders for more information. A number of McGavock students have remained at the scene. Several tell you a student was shot in a first-floor restroom. A girl who claims to be a friend of the victim says his name is James DeVore, a freshman. She said she thinks he is 14 years old. Another student says DeVore recently turned 15. No one present knows who is responsible for the shooting. Minutes later police escort a young man, handcuffed, from the school building. They place him in a squad car and drive away. You ask people in the crowd if anyone can identify the alleged suspect. At least four tell you he is Brian Samuels, a sophomore. You ask police at the scene to confirm this information, but no one will reply. Your videographer tells you she got footage of the boy being placed in the squad car. While talking to her, you hear screams in the background. You run around the side of the building to the loading dock area. Police have taped off the immediate area but you can see what’s going on. EMTs are wheeling the covered body of the victim to an ambulance waiting near the dock. Some students are crying. The videographer gets shots of the body being placed into the ambulance and close-ups of crying students. You approach several police officers standing near a squad car, hoping to get more facts. Inside the squad car an officer is radioing into police headquarters. You hear him saying “the victim is James DeVore, age 15.” The officer radios that the suspect, Samuels, has admitted to the shooting. You also hear the following: “Samuels said it was it was payback, that DeVore had sexually assaulted Samuels’ 6-year-old sister.” Because you are under deadline, you decide not to interview the officers personally and head back to the station. When you get back to the station, a colleague tells you he covered a story two years ago on another in.