Comments online renew debate over gender equity

Since our redeveloped online site, www.frontiersman.com, made its debut more than four months ago it’s been a favorite cyberspace destination, mostly for locals. The interactivity of the site, especially the ability for readers to comment on stories, has been well-received and the Frontiersman online enjoys a health community of those who debate stories and make other comment.

It’s fun, informative and entertaining. And as we found out this past week, sometimes can be overwhelming as well.

On any given day, www.frontiersman.com has anywhere from about 3,200 to 3,600 visitors making about 12,000 to 15,000 pageviews. Those leaving comments typically will number about 25 to 35. This is why we were caught unprepared for Thursday and Friday, when the newspaper’s site had nearly 227,000 visitors, more than 288,000 pageviews and fielded 663 comments.

Seems one of our online stories about a 13-year-old girl arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two 13-year-old boys on a school bus was interesting enough to catch the eye of popular columnist and online blogger Matt Drudge, who posted a link to the story on his Web site. While many of the comments people from around the world have been leaving are mean and inappropriate (and are not being published), many others stir a debate about whether our society still employs a double standard about gender equity in prosecuting crimes.

Many believe the Palmer Police Department overreacted by making the situation a criminal matter, while others argue that if the roles were reversed, and a boy had allegedly assaulted two girls, there would be no question about pressing charges. It’s sad to see there are still those who believe only men can perpetrate or initiate a response from law enforcement when it comes to sexual crimes.

While many of Drudge’s loyal lapdogs are taking pot-shots at one of our local police departments, we support police and school officials for taking a situation of alleged assault seriously, investigating and acting appropriately regardless of gender. There’s a reason Lady Liberty is blind and there is merit to the argument there would be little debate if the alleged aggressor were male.

It’s sad and unfortunate that a small community like Sutton is, through no efforts of its own, put into the national spotlight; however, the debate surrounding the issue is legitimate. We reported the story because any time such an incident occurs in a school-related setting, it is news that parents need to know. While it is unusual to see a youth charged with this crime, it shows the seriousness of the situation, according to police. And while the gender reversal is unusual, it is hardly unheard of and not in and of itself news.

While at first overwhelmed by the sheer number of comments coming in from around the globe, it would have been easy to simply turn off our commenting feature and not allow any through because some knuckleheads have nothing better to do than make inappropriate remarks at the expense of three young teens.

We didn’t do this because the story does have merit, as does the legitimate debate it raises. Dialogue and discourse are good and we encourage both. And the next time a local story catches a world-wide audience, we’ll be ready for that as well. Hopefully, that will be a more positive story.