This is very biased, as a student at Catonsville High School, we all know that most students at CHS are over the age of 13 and this incident did not even occur within our actual school, just within it's boundaries. It casts a bad light upon our school that we do not deserve.

As a student at Catonsville High School, I don't think that this story was told completely. For one thing, the overwhelming majority of students at CHS are 14 or older, so the victims probably didn't attend CHS. Also, our CHS football team had played much earlier in the day, and not even at the CHS stadium- it was an away game. Lastly, this event did not take place inside the school, as the headline suggests. The only way this story is related to our school is that it took place in the woods surrounding our stadium, which is located adjacent to the school. By publlshing this misleading article, our school's name has been dragged through the mud, which we do not deserve.

This event had nothing to do with Catonsville High School. Our football game was away from the school on October 20th, and it was during the day. This was during a rec-football game not associated with the school whatsoever. The girls were 13 years old, the youngest high school grade is aged 14 years. These were middle school girls going to the high-school to meet up with friends, and Catonsville High is in no place at fault.

The way this article is written implies that two students were raped by three male students that all attend CHS. In reality, the CHS football team was at Milford Mills. As far as anyone here knows, no one from CHS was involved, the "Sexual Assault" was not rape, and therfore this article was posted with the sole intent to either misinform or defile the reputation of Catonsville High School.

Mr. Goldfard, I'd like to say that the information that you have is inaccurate. First, your story creates the assumption that the rape happened DURING school, INSIDE the school. In fact, Oct. 20 was a SATURDAY, which means school was not in session. Also, the football game on Sat. for Catonsville High School's team was at Milferd High School and during 2'o'clock in the afternoon. This was an AWAY game. In the article, it's stated that the girls were assaulted around 9:30 p.m after a CHS football game, with the assumption that it was on the school's campus. That is inaccurate. I am very disappointed with the Catonsville Patch for creating the illusion that the girls were assaulted in CHS and after its football game. This demeans CHS character and creates a negative and untrue vibe in our community. I would reccomend you to retract this article or use accurate information. Thank you.

This article falsely forms a bad image for Catonsville High School because the sexual assault that occurred after the football game was not a school sponsored event, but a recreational league that was formed by parents. The sexual assault does not involve the students or the actual high school of CHS and is inaccurate assumption of CHS.

As a student at Catonsville High School, I am quite offended because this article is misleading and inaccurate

This article is very misinforming and needs to have more clarifications.

Clearly this article is not very well written. The event that occured had nothing to do with Catonsville High itself, the game that was playing was a recreation football game, on a Saturday. The girls that were "assaulted" were only 13, so they weren't even old enough to attend high school. This article presents the image that students that attend CHS were assaulted either during school or during one of our football games, when that's not the case at all. The purpose of this article was to give Catonsville High a bad image.

Things good and bad have been going on in the "wooded areas" of CHS grounds for many many decades. It was more scary when Spring Grove was fully utilized and they wandered into the "wooded areas" to ask us for cigarettes or change.

Good to see CHS students speak up here. Some of you need to go into writing to fix the issues you pointed out here.

This Article is inaccurate. first off, you forgot to mention that October 20th was a Saturday. There was also no Catonsville high Football game at the staduim. The High School team played at Millford Mill during the day. The game at the staduim was a rec-league, and the girls were 13, most of the students in CHS are at least 14, The way you wrote this article made it seem like it happened at school by forgeting to add what day of the week it was. you also made it seem like the students at Catonsville were involved, which is not true. this article is missing quite a few facts, before you give Catonsville High a bad name, look into the details that you missed.

Ian

The innacuracies in this article are egregious and should be amended immediately. Despite the implication made by the headline that these grave offences were committed by students attending Catonsville High School following a school sporting event, neither of those are supported by the details revealed in the article, which are few and far between and extremely vague. There is no explanation or report as to when all of this actually transpired, and surely the writers of The Patch are aware that there should be no discrepancies between the actual facts and the statements made in the article. Without proper support or research, the article is entirely open-ended and leaves far too much to the imagination, and, thanks to a great ammount of leading, the imagination would inevitably drift to a conclusion that Catonsville High School and its student body played a far greater role in this than they actually did. CHS has always been revered by the community and its students have received an immense amount of praise for the manner in which they conduct themselves. It's unfortunate that this could now be compromised without just cause.

As a student on the CHS newspaper staff this article is offending. On top of the other events that have occured the misleading nature of the title has a more serious effect than I'm sure was intended. As a reporter I understand that the idea was to get the news out, however we try to get to be clear and not to mislead our readers.

Lindi

To Joe: I graduated from CHS in 1961 and there were no instances of any
of the patients going into the woods. The hospital had all patients
in locked cottages and besides most mentally ill people are
quite harmless, this is just an example of the stigma that this
group of people have to deal with. It doesn't take very much to
scare you especially since you do not understand about the
mentally ill.

Nowhere in this article does it state that these girls attended CHS and it does state that it happened on 10/20. It states 2 13 year old girls met up with a friend and were joined by 3 other males. When the girls refused to go with the guys they were dragged into the woods. This did in fact happened on school grounds but does not say it was during school hours or the girls attended this school. How about a little consideration for the girls who were DRAGGED into the woods and assulted??? Things could have turned out a lot worse than what it was. Thankfully they are ok.

Nowhere does the article say that the incident happened inside of the school, during school hours, or involving CHS students or a CHS team. The facts as they are written are directly from a report released by the Baltimore County Police. I don't yet know who was using the field that day. This is one of the things I'll be following up on. I appreciate the sensitivities of the community and of CHS students, and no disparagement of the school is intended or implied.

What is misleading about this article?! I see nothing, but maybe that is because I am actually reading it?

The title pulls you in but it is not false. It happened on CHS property. I see people's comments stating that Mr. Goldfarb had the girls raped during a CHS football game? Come on, people.

Great real-life application of journalism skills. As a teacher, I am impressed by the way the journalism students are applying their evaluative skills in the community. However, I have a suggestion for the journalism students. A word of caution to the students: you should think about using a handle or a username that does not use your whole name.

To Joe,
Dealt with them? You treat them like people. The violent patient building was
closed way before you were around. The violent patients were sent to Perkins
and still are! Grovers, how condescending, Maybe you were smoking something
else and hallucinated all of these violent patients. Your attitude and knowledge
is exactly why the stigma continues to label people that have proven chemical
imbalances, like diabetics need Insulin. I hope your relative is well!

I agree with the students, following the sensational headline, Mr. Goldfard should have taken the time to find out who was using the fields that day. It would be typically be used by Rec and Parks on a Saturday. Leaving out detaila aand facts, like stating the children involved were not CHS students or that this event was did not occur at a CHS actvity even though it was on school grounds is an important detail which should be included in the original article not a follow up. Lesson learned CHS students.

the wording of the title of this article is very misleading and then the 1st couple of sentences should have been clearer.. the title implies it happen IN the school not grounds surrounding the school and the that teens were assaulted after a football game implying a HS game.. i had to reread this article to see that it was middle school age kids at a rec league football game.. the author was trying to grab people's attention and it worked

@catons-villian

As a student of CHS, and as a student of the journalism class you are refering to, I would more then happy to inform you that we are taught reading comprehension, and we were taught to read facts. The facts that are in this article may be straight from the source but it is the title of the article that seems misleading and can be easy misinterpreted.

Good for you, journalism students. It's hard though to not get emotional when a story includes your school. Good job, comets.

Also, your teachers are instilling independence in your work. :)

This article is a PRIME example of why I have stopped reading the Catonsville Patch on a regular basis. The site has gone downhill rapidly since Penny left. Even if the article is "factual", the implication/assumption/inference is that this occurred after a CHS football game. A simple check of the school's website athletics page would have Mr. Goldfarb would have been able to confirm this. Instead the last sports story is dated October 10 and concerns the Orioles.

It is now 11:20 p.m., nearly 8 hours after Mr. Goldfarb posted in CYA comment that "he was still checking". You've got an article that has raised the ire of a number of people and you can't be bothered to post an update? Again, this is one reason I've stopped reading the Patch (this article showed up in my e-mail and I knew some of the students were upset about it which is why I checked today),

P.S. The other reason - the hate and venom, in the comments section especially on political articles.

Let me rephrase this: With a simple check of the school's website athletics page Mr. Goldfarb would have been able to confirm that there was no home game for CHS and that they played in the afternoon at Milford Mill. Heavens, if the Patch still covered sports he could have confirmed this. Instead the last Patch sports story is dated October 10 and concerns the Orioles.

Obviously, I shouldn't type after 11 p.m.

Extremely misleading headline- sensationalism at its best- disappointed in the Patch Editor

I would also like to remind people that the author of this article did not speak to anyone in the high nor did he speak to any representitives of the catonsville stars rec football team. This whole article is misleading.

Let me also say, parents should keep a better watch on there kids. I have been to a handful of rec football games that were held at the Catonsville High turf, and I have observed plenty of times young females willingly walking into the woods with males. This happens almost all the time. If this article is true, I do feel compasion for these victims. But, with the incident still under investigation, these females could have gone willingly into the woods with these males. From experience we do know that when kids get stuck in a sticky situation their imaginations can run wild, and they will say anything to make it seem as though they were not at fault. We need more information and details.

CHS students are to be commended for their loyalty to their school. I'm impressed that they are going to these lengths to defend their school's reputation.

However, there's a saying "Never assume anything. It makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me.'" By reading their own meanings into the reported facts, the students themselves drew the erroneous conclusions that CHS students had been insulted, and their school faulted for this incident. Loyalty is good; blind loyalty is not.

Most importantly, it doesn't even matter whether the game was a HS or a Rec game. What matters is that these young women, who had every right to watch a community game in safety, were inappropriately touched & hurt by other bystanders! Rather than attacking the reporter over perceived insults to the CHS community, why not focus on what CHS, and the larger community of which it is a part, can do to protect all of our young people from another incident like this one?

I would welcome the opportunity to meet with the journalism students at Catonsville High School and talk about the news and this story.