Article in bad taste
I am writing in regard to Tuesday’s article, “Teens huffing before fatal crash.” It is my feeling, as the sister of one of the deceased, that the article was in bad taste.
First, it tells only part of a story of young men who lived rich lives. It demonizes troubled youth in an attempt that is presumably to communicate old news (since when does a toxicology screen take three months and 11 days?).
Second, you’ve added to the duress of my family and the families of the other deceased. We have already suffered so much. Please do not give our community any more ammunition against us. The use of inhalant drugs was only a small part of the story of a young man whose cries for help in the midst of a treatment-resistant illness fell on ears unwilling to hear them.
Third, shaming these young men is fruitless. They are dead. They were people with families and friends and lovers. They are neither able to be corrected nor the apocryphal teens you cast in your cautionary tale.
Cecilia Frazer
Pittsburgh