Ham report stirs 'mess'
By Judith Meyer , Managing Editor/days
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
LEWISTON - An obscure online parody of the recent hate incident at the Lewiston Middle School - a parody reported as news on a national Fox broadcast Tuesday - launched an immediate avalanche of angry phone calls and ugly e-mails to the school system.
In the parody, the ham steak became a ham sandwich. Fake quotes were attributed to Superintendent Leon Levesque, Stephen Wessler of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence, and one of the Somali students targeted in the incident.
The post then appeared to legitimize the information by attributing The Associated Press as its source.
Larry Laughlin, chief of bureau for AP in Northern New England, said the parody was "clearly improper use of The Associated Press brand."
"You can't," Laughlin said, "fancifully make up comments and add them to an Associated Press story."
Lawyers for the AP are reviewing the parody post and will take action as appropriate, Laughlin said.
The parody, posted by Nicholas Plagman of Atlanta, Ga., and published Monday on an Associated Press look-alike site called Associated Content, and the resulting comments and posts on that and dozens of other online sites, created tension at the middle school and among parents of students.
"We're in a mess here," Levesque said, that they want to straighten out by talking about the cafeteria incident with students. Students are upset and don't want to talk, he said, because they're worried about harassment.
Following the Fox broadcast, Levesque's office received dozens of angry phone calls and profanity-laced e-mails, made and sent by people all over the country, who charge the school district overreacted to what they believed from news reports to be a ham sandwich tossed at a Somali student.
"Leaving your sandwich on a table is now a crime in Maine?" one e-mail asked. It continued, "This child did nothing illegal in placing his sandwich in front of several intolerant people that will kill YOUR students for sitting at the same table let alone placing a sandwich next to them."
From North Carolina, a e-mailer wrote that he'd read the "news media of your actions with regards to a child leaving a ham sandwich on a table used by Muslim students at one of your schools. Excuse my bluntness, but are you people insane?"
And, in another e-mail, "A ham sandwich is not a hate crime. It's two pieces of bread with a processed meat between them. Stop catering to the less than 1% and offending the other 99%. Please!"
Another e-mail suggested Levesque wasn't qualified to be superintendent of a public school because he "obviously escalated a simple prank into a hate crime."
That's not the case, Levesque said.
The incident, which happened in the school cafeteria on April 11, was considered by school staff to be a hate incident. School resource officer Bill Brochu, according to Principal Maureen Lachapelle, followed police procedure by filing a report "because the ham incident was perceived as a hate/bias crime" by the students.
"The Somali boys said they were offended by it because of their religion," which considers pork unclean, and Brochu "did an investigation and forwarded his report to his supervisor, Adam Higgins," Lachappelle said. From there, the report was sent to the Attorney General's Office for review and to the Androscoggin County District Attorney's Office for review for possible harassment charges.
According to Lachapelle, a student brought a honey-baked ham to school to share with his friends. While they were in the cafeteria, one or more students dared another student (not the one who brought the ham to school) to put the ham on a table in front of five Somali boys. That student took up the dare, and followed through even though his friends immediately tried to talk him out of it. The student "knew it was wrong," Levesque said, while he was doing it.
Lachappelle said the student regrets the incident and his parents have supported the punishment meted by the school district.
The Sun Journal published a story about the incident on April 19 as the lead article on the front page. After Monday's Associated Content posting, the altered story moved rapidly across personal and news sites and was discussed with outrage.
In the parody, Levesque was quoted as saying "These children have got to learn that ham is not a toy, and that there are consequences for being nonchalant about where you put your sandwich."
Wessler was quoted as saying his agency was working with the school to create an "anti-ham 'response plan.'"
Neither man said those things.
Levesque never made any reference to a need to make students feel safe from attacks from any ham product.
The parody also attributed a quote to the student who was targeted with the ham, equating the experience to being "back in Somalia being shot at all over again."
Plagman never spoke to the student, and the student never made that statement.
The Sun Journal attempted to contact Plagman for comment, but he did not respond.
Wessler, who talked to a Texas CBS affiliate and two Fox affiliates Tuesday and has been scheduled to appear on another Fox broadcast today, said, "This kind of distortion by reputable news outlets is destructive."
"Fox has figured out, from the calls we've gotten, that they've made a big mistake," Wessler said.
"This is a wake-up call that the level of hate and anger, among a small population, is vibrant," he added.
Levesque said he was bothered not only that the parody took aim at a sensitive issue in Lewiston, but also that Fox and others reported the information as fact without checking. The national media, Levesque said, sees information posted online and "uses it as gospel."
In this case, reporting false information is getting in the way of the city and the school's continued work to build community understanding and tolerance for immigrants, said Phil Nadeau, Lewiston's assistant city administrator. The parodied news account cast a false impression of an overwhelmingly tolerant city and its population, Nadeau said, and of the Somali population in particular.
"The last thing they want is to be above the fold" of a front page or featured on the evening news, Nadeau said.
Watching the parody and news reports unfold Tuesday, Levesque said is proof media "is interested in entertaining and playing on people's emotions," which gets in the way of building community relations.
Lachapelle said she won't let it get in the way of the disciplined student's return to school, ensuring steps are being made to make sure he feels safe when he comes back.
Three tons of double dead pork were seized by Quezon City health officials several meat stalls in Balintawak Market, Thursday night.
