Moose death rumors could have been avoided

The unfortunate death of a moose calf at Colony Middle School created a monster.

First, the children who apparently harassed the animal should be punished with more than a suspension if, in fact, they caused the moose to become so agitated that it did itself in. That’s what reasonable people would say. And many did.

But at mid-afternoon Friday, the troopers finally released information as to why there was no ongoing investigation: The moose had minor injuries, but was more likely weakened by the winter. Troopers say there was some reports that the students were yelling at the moose, but they say there is no evidence they caused the animal’s death. They believe the moose was lying down when the students came out, but it was able to get up and ran into the fence and never got back up.

If that’s the case, why were the students punished?

Of course the school won’t reveal much at all. The offenders are teenagers. And it’s the policy of this newspaper, and most, that names of juvenile criminals aren’t printed unless they do something that resembles adult misbehavior and are treated that way by the court system. So their privacy wasn’t an issue. We couldn’t even find out how long they were suspended or what they did to cause the suspension.

So much of the wild rumors running about could have been thwarted with a little better communication, sooner, on the part of either of these entities.

But the death of the moose was just the beginning of this mess.

The comments on the Frontiersman website ranged from naive to outright disgust and they’re still pouring in.

Such were the comments that the school found it necessary to add security. The superintendent called to ask that we quit posting comments about the event because of the vitriol of some posters. And he didn’t even see the worst of them because those were not put through.

A fellow from Washington, D.C., sent an e-mail to the paper using profanity that would make a muleskinner blush.

Some posters even threatened violence. This at a time when Colorado and the nation mourned the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School murders.

Too many of the posts were just out of line.

We’re not prudes here at the paper, but if you believe vile language is going to win support from us, you’re wrong. Calling each other names for all to see makes you seem like you can’t make a point on your own. And threatening children is just low.

The death of the moose revealed a lot about us and flattery doesn’t come to mind.