Whenever I discuss a story like this, I feel I have to make a disclaimer because I know there will be people who will read what I put down quickly, respond emotionally and won't take time to understand why I have taken the position I have taken.

I came across the story of Whitney Kropp. I first saw it as a link on the Today Show page, and from there I hit a number of television and newspaper websites to gain more information on the story. Whitney's story is one of those feel good stories where something terrible happens to her, the community rallies around her and in the end everything is happy as an afterschool special. Whitney is a quiet, odd girl in her town of 2500 people in West Branch, Michigan. She wears black sometimes, colors her hair odd sometimes, and this non-conformity made her something of an outcast in Ogemaw Heights High School. There was a vote for the homecoming court, which in most schools is nothing more than a popularity contest, and somehow she won as a representative for the sophomore class. She was excited that she won but that soon turned to disgust because she found out her nomination was some cruel high school prank to humiliate her.

Instead of backing down, she decided to not let the taunts and finger pointing discourage her. Word got out and a Facebook support page was set up and people in the town rallied behind her. Soon people nationwide were sending her support through her support page. Local businesses donated a dress, hair and nail styling, transportation, a night out at a fancy restaurant; anything and everything that would be associated with a grand and expensive homecoming night out for a teenager. The stands of the football game will be filled with people in support of her.

Her story is the perfect Hollywood teenager story, kind of like Carrie with a happy ending, as one national magazine put it.

Call me cynical, and I'm sure many will, I read a number of articles and walked away with an ill feeling in my stomach. There was something missing in the story. There was nothing in the number of articles I read where anyone gave a reason why the sophomore class would want to bully this girl. There was no explanation as to how making her part of the homecoming court was going to humiliate her. According to Whitney, in a Today Show segment, she had been kicked by bullies in Junior High. I would definitely call that traumatic. In another article when she explained how she found out her win was a prank, she said she was told by 'someone' during a Facebook conversation. It was said that the girl wrote to Whitney that the guy who was paired with her, who told Whitney he dropped out because he never went to homecoming, said he was saying something else around school. When pressed the girl didn't respond as to what he was saying.

Now, it has to be said that the guy is now taking her to homecoming and has said on his Facebook page, according to articles, that he just didn't want to go to homecoming and it had nothing to do with any prank. That seems to be the larger question. There's no evidence of a prank or how the prank would have been executed. It that odd sort of reality where we supposed to believe that 1) a good number of the sophomore class disliked Whitney so much they decided to do a prank from Carrie, 2) it was widespread enough that, according to Whitney, people were pointing and mocking her as she walked through class, 3) there were obviously a huge amount of classmates who supported her, again according to her words and this was before the story went national and 4) someone either rigged the votes or got a lot of people voting for her and none of those kids finking out on the ringleaders.

Just the same way Whitney was able to find out a few days later that the incident was a prank because of Facebook, why haven't the people who were responsible for the prank not been caught? No Facebook, twitter or text trails for anyone to follow? I'm sorry but I find it hard to believe teenagers are so tight about security that no one would communicate to anyone that is a weak link.

You hear me being skeptical because in the stories I've read, there is so much glow on Whitney, so much trying to make her a role model and hero for anti-bullying, her story is accepted as fact without getting details to support her story. As an example, I read a Forbes article (yes, Forbes magazine wrote about this) and the reporter said the guy who was to take her out initially decided not to because he didn't want to be seen with her. There was no comment from the guy saying that. In fact, there was only gossip that it was the reason why he didn't go, since he told Whitney that like her he never had his name in place for the election and that he never went to homecoming. When he changed his mind, he put on his Facebook page the reason he initially didn't want to go was the same that he gave Whitney in the beginning.

On the Forbes website, two people called out the reporter for making the assumption about the boy's rumored motives rather than what he actually put on his Facebook page and what was confirmed by Whitney. The reporter responded correctly that he did put that information in the article, but it was near the end of the article. So after trashing the guy initially, it's not until the end that amends were made, even though the evidence at least suggested some confusion as to what might be true.

It still hit me as to why Whitney's classmates hated her, but felt that the best way to humiliate her was to take a page from a classic horror film that I would bet many of them haven't seen. The reason I say that is where is the endgame? If she's part of the homecoming court, where is the humiliation? Was the finger pointing and stares enough? According to Whitney, that was being done already so why up the stakes by making her part of the homecoming court? How is it that this plan is so tight that no one has uncovered who started it? This is a town of 2100 people, with the high school having 800 students. A conservative estimate would say about 300 people at most in the sophomore class. So out of that number, maybe 3 or more had to pull this off, but probably more, but no one has turned the culprit in, no one heard rumors of who it might be.

Remember how I said Whitney was described as a wild haired black wearing teenager? I didn't check anything on her personal Facebook page but on a Google search there are lots of pictures of the teenager, most of course from recent appearances on the news, but maybe five pictures out of the many that came up had her in black clothes. She has red hair in some, blond in others and a few that had highlights of pink but nothing I would consider goth or emo in nature. I was looking for clues to find out why there was hate for the girl and I took an hour before I found what I think is the answer.

On her Facebook page, which was locked obviously, I was able to see some of the pictures and cover photos she put up. A lot of the pictures were of Adam Lambert and there was one of a gay pride flag. In a conservative town, I could see where this might make her an outcast. It makes sense this could be the reason for the bullying rather than some non-thing that the press was putting up. Actually that would be giving them too much credit because there was no explanation given as to why this girl was being singled out. Honestly I don't even know if she is homosexual, and that isn't the point. If she were supporting homosexual equality, no matter if she were lesbian or straight, it wouldn't make a difference but it would put the issue in correct context.

Let me say why this was an important fact to know; before I found that on her page, with the lack of information given it was looking like she was perpetrating a hoax. There was non hard evidence of bullying and from the Today Show report she looked like she came from a modest family of modest means. When this story blew up townspeople donated all the things any person who was caught up in homecoming would want, and she and her family won't have to pay for a thing. The girl who was ignored in school is now the talk of the nation. Like another article jokingly said, she is getting the revenge many bullied people don't get until 20 years later and years of therapy. Reading the comments on some of the news sites showed people in overwhelming support of Whitney. Anyone who dared suggested it might be a hoax were severely questioned, but a good number brought up valid points to have doubts about her story. For the record, I didn't use any of the ones I saw, which only proves to me how questionable the story was presented by the press.

Maybe they were trying to protect a minor, if they were unsure of her sexual orientation. Maybe they wanted to perpetuate the 'Carrie with a happy ending' meme they had constructed. In any case, it will be interesting to see how this story plays out in a year or two. Will they get an explanation as to why she was bullied or will we find out this was a hoax?

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Questionable Reporting in the Whitney Kropp Story - September 25, 2012
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