Normally, the Herald-Leader does not write stories about deaths by suicide — unless they involve a prominent member of the community or take place in a very public way. For years, the thinking has been that covering suicides might lead others to consider suicide as an option. There is some disagreement in journalism — and in the Herald-Leader newsroom — on this subject, including those who think that NOT writing about suicides only stigmatizes such deaths. Others point out that by writing about suicides more often, newspapers could provide valuable resource information that could inspire those considering suicide to seek help.
On Sunday’s front page, we make an exception to this long-standing policy about covering suicides. An editors’ note explains the many reasons we decided to write about the death by suicide of Josh Shipman, a student at Dunbar High School in Lexington. Among those reasons: Josh’s family agreed to speak with education writer Raviya Ismail at length about Josh, his life and his death, in the hopes that others might see his story and seek help if they, too, were considering suicide. Also, Josh’s death had led to an extraordinary outpouring of grief and emotion at his high school, and on the internet, where several mourning pages have been created, including on MySpace.com. And finally, Josh was no stranger to the Herald-Leader. On the first day of school in 2005, we ran a front-page story about his experience as a new freshman at the school’s new freshman academy. That was how Raviya first met Josh, and a large part of why she pursued the story about his death.
A lot of conversation and care went into producing the story that runs on Sunday’s front page. Among other things, the story includes detailed suicide information and resources for teens and parents of teens who fear their child might be considering suicide. It also includes discussion from experts about the very real issue of teen suicide, especially about how it affects gay teens.
I asked Raviya to share some of her thoughts about how this story came to be, and how she reported it over the last month and a half. Here is what she had to say:
“Josh Shipman was profiled for a story on his first day of school as a freshman more than a year ago,” Raviya said. “He was selected quite randomly from a large pool of students. In Oct. 6, 2006, I got a phone call from a student at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School saying a peer had committed suicide. I received another call about the suicide and I asked the name of the student. Before the question was answered, I knew it was him. I knew Josh was different and I knew he had problems, he wore that part of him like he wore his quirky clothes. But the last conversation I had with him, I had wished him luck and I thought he was going to do great things with his life. So it was sad for me that he had died in such a way. I talked to my editor who was also shocked, but we both initially agreed that we wouldn’t pursue a story – newspapers don’t write about suicides unless they are in the public domain."
Over the ensuing days, as Raviya notes, our thoughts changed about whether Josh’s death might merit a story. First, Raviya continued to be contacted by teens who knew Josh. She also started to find that his death had become a topic on the Web. Raviya talked with me and her direct editor, Risa Brim Richardson, and we decided that she should try to find out more. We also decided that it was critical for her to make contact with Josh’s family.
Raviya continues: “People were intrigued because Josh was gay, because he was eccentric. What could I find out about his life? So I started slowly. I called a student at Dunbar who knew Josh and asked him to pass my name and number on to some of Josh’s friends. Then I looked up his last name in the phonebook and reached his grandfather, who gave me Matthew Shipman’s cell phone number (Josh’s dad.) I called Josh’s dad, and he asked if I could call him back. We wanted to pursue a story on Josh, but … I wanted to communicate that with his father.” Raviya placed a few calls to Josh’s father, always conscious that this was a difficult time for the family. Each time, she simply let him know that she wanted to know more about Josh and that she was ready to listen when he was ready to talk.
At one point, Matthew Shipman called, and “we talked for about 30 minutes, and he opened up to me about Josh’s death. How they argued the night he died and how the funeral was packed with so many people – teens and adults – and how he wished he knew his son half as much as those people. While I had talked to a number of Josh’s friends, that conversation with his father laid the groundwork for the rest of my reporting. I had another interview with his father (and former step-mother Cyndi Shipman and sister, Lyndsey Cheuvront) that lasted 3 hours. I asked his dad if I could communicate with his mother – she was important for the story. He said he’d call her and leave her my contact information. She called me the next day. She agreed to be interviewed and I met with her for one hour. She brought a bag full of baby pictures of Josh. She talked about his problems and her guilt regarding his death.”
The results of Raviya’s reporting provide a look into the life of a troubled teen trying to find his place in the world — and of the devastation that his death has left behind.
Peter Baniak
metro editor
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