JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Even though The Star doesn’t have the depth, breadth and impact it formerly did, a story that ran on the front page Sunday may well have strong repercussions for a major institution in this region.

The story was titled “Women reporting rapes in Lawrence say police department failed them.” The illustration that accompanied the story depicted a huge Lawrence PD badge dwarfing the image of a young woman. At the right side of the illustration are the words, in quotation marks, “Women aren’t safe here.”

I wonder how KU chancellor Douglas Girod felt when he saw that headline. I wonder how Barbara Bichelmeyer, who announced Friday that she is leaving UMKC to become executive vice chancellor at KU, felt. They and other KU administrators must have a sick and sinking feeling because that story will echo far and wide. Thousands of parents from coast to coast, and maybe beyond — and their daughters — will learn of that story, or at least its thrust, and have second thoughts about the possibility of attending KU.

I guarantee you there will be far fewer young women in the stands at Allen Fieldhouse in years to come singing, “Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk, KU.”

Those four words — “Women aren’t safe here” — will be repeated thousands of times at dinner tables, at high schools and everywhere else that prospective college students talk about their college dreams and plans.

The Star’s story, reported and written by Katie Bernard, cited several cases of young women who had gone to Lawrence police with allegations of being raped and getting little more than shoulder shrugs. One woman who reported that her ex-boyfriend had raped her multiple times said an officer told her that “since it was a relationship, it means it was consensual.” Another woman said a Lawrence officer told her sexual assaults happen when women in college “experiment.”

Moreover, Bernard reported that the Douglass County District Attorney’s office had charged at least three women — not just one who case The Star has carefully documented — with falsely reporting rapes. The charges have all been dropped because of The Star’s questions.

And if the story wasn’t enough of a gut punch, the lead editorial in Sunday’s paper piggybacked on it. The first sentence of the editorial read, “Police and prosecutors in Lawrence have a staggering amount to learn about sexual assault.”

…It’s hard to imagine a more damaging label for a college to carry than it’s a place where women aren’t safe.

This morning, I expect there’ll be some hurriedly called meetings at KU, the police department and the D.A.’s office to start to deal with the fallout from this blockbuster story. Significant damage has been done to the reputations of the police department, the D.A.’s office, and, by extension, to the University of Kansas.

It’s a rotten development for a very good school, but The Star exposed things that needed to be exposed.

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For those of you who don’t take The New York Times, I recommend you get to the grocery today and buy Sunday’s edition. It’s got a remarkable, 44-page tabloid section about a 40-year-old Belgian woman — a paralympic athlete named Marieke Vervoort — who chose to end her life of chronic pain with doctor-assisted suicide, which is legal in Belgium.

A photographer named Lynsey Addario and a New York Times sports reporter named Andrew Keh spent significant time with Vervoort over nearly three years. Vervoort opened up to them, allowing complete access to the physical and emotional anguish she was experiencing along her winding road to death.

Fittingly, the project is called “The End.” A short paragraph on the cover of the section sums up the story this way…

“Knowing she had the legal right to die helped Marieke Vervoort live her life. It propelled her to medals at the Paralympics. But she could never get away from the pain.”

If you want to read a great story about courage — and you’re prepared for a good cry — I strongly recommend Addario’s and Keh’s incredible report. (It’s on The Times’ website, but if you want the full impact, get the print version.)

In the days before Marieke Vervoort died, friends came to the hospital to say their goodbyes.