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Santana Scapegoat

Local Media Swarm Pro-life Pastor

By Allyson Smith

San Diego mainstream media went ballistic the day after the Santana High School shootings over Grossmont Union High School District school board trustee and local pastor Gary Cass.

"Of all the high schools I oversee and counsel, Santana High School students consistently displayed a disrespect for human life," said Cass in a press release on March 6 from San Diego Christians United. "Many have commented on how President Bush failed to use this shooting to call for stricter gun laws, but those same critics ignored the root cause of the shooting. I have seen and heard -- first-hand from the students at Santana High -- a consistent disrespect for human life. Until we address this cause we will continue to watch students killing students."

Though not explained in the release, by "disrespect" Cass was referring to comments he and others had heard from Santana High students during pro-life activities at the school last year.

In a March 8 interview, Cass explained that he gave his statement to a Christian news service to issue a press release, but "I had no idea it would have such a big impact in the local media." By Wednesday, March 7, Cass' statement was being reported and discussed throughout the local media.

San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Jill Spielvogel led the day's news with an article titled "School trustee says hopeless comments about life heard from students." The first two paragraphs informed readers that Cass "is active in anti-abortion protests" with "the anti-abortion San Diego Christians United," followed by a one-sentence quote from his press statement. The rest of the article (except for the final paragraph) was devoted to reaction from Cass' Grossmont Union school board rivals, Ted Crooks and Dan McGeorge. It included a quote from Crooks that said, "I remain appalled at Mr. Cass' lack of sensitivity, taste, even manners, that he would make this kind of baseless, despicable attack on students that don't need any attackers right now."

Union-Tribune bias against Cass was evident from letters that appeared in its Opinion section. An editorial submitted by Cheryl Sullenger on Tuesday evening was not printed, nor were other letters. "I faxed a letter in support of Gary Cass last Thursday," said La Mesa attorney Michael Kumeta. "A good friend of mine did the same. Yet, on Friday the UT published two editorials castigating Gary while failing to publish any opposing views. Each editorial section of the UT states: 'It is also our policy to publish letters supporting or opposing a particular issue in a ratio reflecting the number received on each side.' Why is the Union-Tribune ignoring its own editorial policy in regard to Gary?"

During his talk show Wednesday morning, KOGO radio's Stacy Taylor denounced Cass for saying that Santana students are disrespectful of human life and for showing abortion posters at the school, prompting calls from several Cass supporters. Lorraine Klein of El Cajon told Taylor, "I want to make a statement about those people who called in saying they are pro-life but object to the signs. The media was showing the victims of the shooting on the TV and yet they object to the pictures of the dismembered babies? I'd like to know what those people who object to the signs would say to the children who have been saved by them."

David and Lulu Garcia made separate calls to the show. "I could barely get a word in edgewise," said David. "I told Taylor 'It's true the kids have a disrespect for life; I know first-hand because I've heard them say these things; they've said them to me personally when we go out in front of the schools with the posters. Just like that girl in Brooklyn who threw her baby to a half-starved pit bull -- now tell me if that's not a disrespect for life, and this is what's permeating our culture. It starts with abortion. If you can't respect life on that level, you're not going to respect it with other teenagers and adults.' Taylor said he didn't see a connection; that abortion doesn't really have anything to do with it."

Lulu Garcia told Taylor, "I have a nephew and nieces and a couple of cousins who go to Santana. When I heard about the shooting, I called Gary Cass and asked if he could go to the school and help me find them. He said, 'I'm going right now and will call you as soon as I know anything.' He and Jim Kelly from the San Diego County school board went to Santana and stayed the whole day at the Del Taco shop helping the parents and students find each other, praying with them and talking to them, letting them use his cell phone, doing anything he could do for them. He was the only member of the Grossmont school board who went to Santana, but you don't hear the media saying anything about that.

Lulu continued, "I tried to explain to Stacy that what Gary Cass was addressing [in his statement] was the culture of death. He asked, 'What do you mean? I have a teenager.' I said, 'I'll tell you what I mean. I'm talking about that we abort them; we don't want them if it's too inconvenient; we give them the message that money's more important. We give them that message, and they're hopeless. They don't have adults in their lives who give them a message that they care about them.'

"Later that day, my mother-in-law called and said Pastor Gary was going to be on Channel 7/39. When they showed him the first time, on the early news at 4:00, they just showed Gary sitting at his desk while [newscaster] Marty Levin read portions of his statement and talked about it in his own words. He did say that Gary Cass wouldn't say how many students he spoke to. They interviewed Gary for an hour showing him sitting at his desk with his laptop and his lips moving. It was just so skeletal that it left me with a really sinking feeling."

On Wednesday, Cass issued another statement to the press: "This situation has taken a turn I never intended. I want the focus to be back on the kids ... making sure the kids get the attention they need." Though the second statement
was not meant as an apology or formal retraction of the first one, thesandiegochannel.com afterward ran a news item headlined "Santee Pastor Regrets Damaging Statements." It said, in part, "The pastor offered no explanation for the purported negative trend among teens who attend the Santee campus.... Cass' statements upset other local officials and residents."

Following the media exposure and public outcry on Wednesday and anticipating a hostile crowd at the scheduled school board board meeting the following night, on Thursday citizens bombarded the office of school superintendent Granger Ward with faxes in support of Cass. Cheryl Sullenger, who attended the meeting with her husband, described the scene. "There were many TV stations there with cameras and reporters. I signed up to speak but decided I would only talk if someone else criticized Gary. No one did, so I did not speak since I did not want to be the one to open the floodgates. Several students were there from various schools to receive competition awards so the board seemed mainly interested in displaying these young people for the media. I highly suspect that the faxes on Gary's behalf may have given them pause."

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