Let’s talk about the “Purge” rumors…

It’s over. Nothing happened. Let’s sit back and analyze what happened.

Let’s bring on a “Let’s talk” Big Board…

• The first and most important thing… nothing happened. The Danville Police Department did what they had to do to make sure that Friday’s school grounds were the safest place to be in Danville.
• Yeah. My original article was tough and harshly worded. I don’t regret that one bit. It was my opinion and apparently the opinion of a lot of others. I also got strong pushback against my opinion and I’m very comfortable with that. This is what SouthsideCentral is all about. It’s different from anything this region has ever had and people are liking what they see. You don’t have to agree with me at all, and I encourage opposite viewpoints in the comments. I’m also open to guest commentaries that disagree with me. You readers are awesome, and you have made SouthsideCentral what it’s become today. You won’t get every news story here until I can get more than just me reporting it… but you will get things that nobody else has or will touch.
• The “bad guys” won this round. The education system was disrupted and virtually shut down at GW on Friday. The trickle-down of the fears caused higher absences in the other schools too. The police department had to allocate extra resources to handle this situation and that doesn’t come for free.
• Adults were more responsible for this panic than children. After I published the article showing an adult’s blatant lie and then their horsecrap, I was given at least 15 other clear examples of people who spread the rumors just as blatantly. I know there were plenty more examples than just the ones I was shown.
• No other media source attempted to factcheck any of these rumors once their articles on this were published. That’s shameful.
• If you depended on the Danville Register & Bee as your sole source of information, you never would have seen any article on this. That’s right. Nothing. That’s not excusable. The R&B’s newest reporter was covering the school board retreat session Thursday night as the rumors were going out of control. His article was solely about the retreat.
• Jessica Griffith is to be commended for her long-form on-camera interview with GW principal Withers Jackson. Unfortunately, her good work got negated by Charles Roark doing his typical in-studio talk show, trying to sensationalize the rumors. Jessica Griffith deserves better.
• I’m not going to criticize any parent for pulling their child out of school on Friday. I just hope that this will be a learning experience for them the next time that it happens. Yeah, it’s going to happen again because it worked so well.
• I also hope that the community will come together and start fighting back. Directly call out the people who start and spread rumors. Demand their sources. Factcheck things. Heck, send things to me and I will factcheck them. We’ve got to stop this hysteria by stomping down those who would spread it.

Sigh. The bottom line is that it’s time for people to start thinking for themselves instead of falling for ridiculous hysteria. The bad guys won this time. Let’s beat them at their own game the next time.