Later this afternoon, investigative information will be released on the Platte Canyon High School shooting that ripped apart the hearts in this community - then snapped them all back together even tighter - on September 27, 2006. Just six short months ago.

While we appreciate our readers and work hard to keep our community informed, you will have to go elsewhere to read details of what happened to a group of young girls that day. It won't be covered in any detail here.

A study of the deranged criminal who would do such a thing, and an attempt to understand the components of such a personality will be interesting. However, the privacy and rights of the surviving victims far outweigh the "rights" of curiosity.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a 16-year-old girl trying to attend school and focus on living life among hundreds of other teenagers. Tough enough. Now imagine that embarrassing details - even hints of such - were to be published in international media.

Or, imagine that you were on duty, in uniform, on scene, on that tragic day. It may not matter that you understand, at an intellectual level, that procedure was followed, every option was studied in mind-numbing agony, and the best of all possible decisions were made… you will still "what if" yourself in painful retrospect each time the issue is raised.

Each student, each victim, each advocate, each cop, every person with a job to do that day, relives the gut-wrenching emotion and grief of that afternoon of horror, every time the issue is brought back into the spotlight… and probably more.

The media have a responsibility to keep the public informed - no question. But, when it comes to innocent victims - particularly our precious children - great care must be taken in the exercise of free speech. Does the information we can report really benefit the public beyond attention-getting shock value? Perhaps, for events like today's, we could borrow and modify the prime directive of the doctor in considering unnecessary details…

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who suffered losses and terror last September, and with those who hold themselves between us and the perpetrators of such unthinkable acts. Thank you for your courage. This community stands with you all.