Inappropriate kids to interview on this subject?

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/185/story/158734.html

This is a story about a teacher in New Jersey charged with aggravated sexual assault and criminal sexual conduct after allegedly having sex in a classroom with a 16-year-old girl.

Here's what i had a problem with - the reporter interviewed two students and both are freshmen girls, i assume 14 years old? maybe 15?

Now maybe these interviews were set up with the permission of the parents, although it doesn't seem that way ("while waiting for a ride home.")

But if you're going to interview students for this particular story, I just think you don't interview freshman girls. I know if my daughter who's that age was interviewed by a reporter about a sex assault at her school while she was waiting for a ride home, I wouldn't be real thrilled.

Am I overreacting?

(not to mention the first quote adds nothing to the story -- during school hours? so it would have been OK at 7 p.m. and who uses an exclamation point in a quote - that's ridiculous!)

"During school hours? That's ridiculous!" freshman Haylee Errickson said while waiting with friends for a ride home from school Wednesday.

"I can't imagine that happening at all," freshman Kristen Hallas said. "It's kind of disturbing."

 

When dealing with high school kids, I think it's always best to go through an advocate. Doesn't have to be a parent. If it's during school hours, go through a teacher.
From the other side, if I was a parent, I would be mad at whoever interviewed my kid, but I would also be mad at the teachers/administrators for allowing press access to students on school grounds.

 

I don't see the harm, really. Once a student reaches high school, I think they have the capacity to think and decide for themselves if they want to do an interview or not.

I might think differently if it was someone very close and emotionally involved, but give these students a bit of credit.

 

For sports? Maybe.

For a story like this one, go through parents or a teacher.

 

A tape recorder and a witness are a good idea.

 

This is probably the right approach. I walk up to the school, find a kid, and talk to him or her all the time, but it's always about sports-related stuff. If I were writing a story on something like this, I would probably go through an adult first.

 

My kids are much younger, but if a reporter asked one of my kids a question of sexual nature when they were under 18, I'd be pretty fucking pissed.

 

So go through a teacher, unless it's your kid, who shouldn't be interviewed at all regardless of whether or not a teacher says it's OK.