Abbotsford school stabbing video raises questions about sharing raw footage online
On Nov. 1, 13-year-old Letisha Reimer was stabbed to death at her Abbotsford, B.C., high school.
The attack was caught on camera, and instantly uploaded and circulated online.
Superintendent of schools Kevin Godden pleaded to cease circulation of the viral video that filmed the stabbing.
"This video is a trigger to trauma not only for our students and our community but for any person that has been involved in a traumatic incident."
"I couldn't sleep last night thinking about it and I was not there."
She says posting a video can trivialize the sensitivity and seriousness of a traumatic incident.
"We have to remember that it's not entertainment," says Law.
"This is something that we have to really talk seriously with the community, and with people, and with students about what is appropriate to put online and how can we be more thoughtful when we are posting things."
Law says there was no real purpose behind posting this video like in other cases that highlight injustice or a need to take action.
"In this case they were not trying to proclaim anything. This was an incident that occurred that is horrible. But there's no context behind it."
According to Lisa Lynch, an associate professor of journalism at Drew University, there's an impetus to document in this modern age and factors into why this video exists online.
"The act of recording the video, I think, you can kind of see that might be some of the context that we're getting used to when we see something violent going on."
However, Lynch says part of this documenting culture needs a way to handle the material, a conversation she says is still in its infancy.
Peter Chow-White, director of aSimon Fraser University's School of Communication, says what the video has created is conversation at a larger, social level to talk about what is acceptable.
"It becomes a question of taste not law," Chow-White tells Seglins.
He says another part of this discussion is also how youth are targeted as doing the wrong thing without regarding the fact using technology in this way is part of their culture.
"There's this moralizing that goes on in blaming of young people for doing these sorts of things but they're documenting everything."
"It's really hard to put the genie back in the bottle. It's probably not going to happen."
This segment was produced by The Current's Liz Hoath, Sujata Berry and Karin Marley.