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My daughter stands up to Sonoran News bully

December 3, 2009 by CCSOS Admin

courtesy post – contributed by Colleen Davis

My daughter’s second Sonoran News protest went well Tuesday.  It gained momentum from a vicious attack on her in last week’s paper (though the protest was planned before that edition) that linked her to sexual misbehavior rumored on a school bus about a decade ago. My daughter, A.J., is 14.

A.J. asked people to take back newspapers to the Sonoran News office. We’ve heard a stream of community members did so throughout the day – including one former governing board member.

At 5, about 15 adults joined a handful of students taking back more than 50 copies dropped off in a bin during the day by residents.  We entered the Sonoran News office and encountered an angry response from a shaking publisher.

“Get out, get out, get out of the office now,” publisher Don Sorchych said when he emerged from his office to encounter us just inside the door. “You’re sick people who have nothing better to do.”  He then ripped a paper out of a protester’s hand.

I wonder if the old saying is true: bullies are cowards. Sorchych seemed afraid of debating what he did to my daughter.

The protesters had reason to be angry, not Sorchych.  Especially me, the victim’s mother.

To go after a 14-year-old who exercised her freedom of speech is just pathetic. A.J. organized a Nov. 19 protest against unbalanced and misleading news coverage in the Sonoran News and character assassination on editorial pages.  The paper responded with a front-page threat against people who interfere with its advertisers’ expectations, a misleading front-page story that even implied my husband and I ran the protest rather than A.J. by leaving out two words in her email inviting people to contact “my parents . . . ” instead of “my parents or myself.”

An editorial cartoon suggested A.J. had been misled by the school district, myself and my husband. The worst was an editorial by publisher Sorchych that said we don’t know what we’re talking about, wondered whether A.J. can read, and linked her to the “rumored” sexual incident.

This disgusting mistreatment of a high school freshman is intolerable.

After the protest Tuesday, A.J. said Sorchych appeared “furious and embarrassed.”

“He’s nothing but a big bully.”

She vowed to continue protesting opinions portrayed as news stories in the Sonoran News and vicious attacks on those who disagree with the paper’s stances.

“When you start printing the truth, we’ll consider keeping your newspapers,” Virgel Cain, a former govering board member, said he told a receptionist as the group returned the papers. Another ex-member reported she tried to talk with Sorchych but he threatened to call sheriff’s deputies.

I guess Sorchych can dish it out but he can’t take it.

If any of you want to send a message, feel free to return your papers by mail, or just the front page.

Tags: AJ Davis, Cave Creek Unified, Colleen Davis, Don Sorchych, Sonoran News, Sonoran News Protest, Virgel Cain
Posted in CCUSD Parents

http://ccsos.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/my-daughter-stands-up-to-sonoran-news-bully/