Need some advice

[Bureau Chief]

This is a serious question. I need some input from newsroom regulars.

Ive been wrestling with this problem all night and cant figure out how to handle the situation. I got a call last night from a friend of a former station employee. The former employee was let go for cause a couple of months ago. Well the friend tells me that this now unemployed person has made statements that she may end her life in a dramatic fashion after getting into the station and do it in the newsroom. The friend will not report the threat to authorities but thought that someone at the station needed to be warned and she insists that she not be the source of the info. So I cant tell where I got the warning from or how I know this lady is bent on ending her life in front of the people who fired her.

So how do I warn management without them calling out the police and making it a huge issue which might push this lady over the edge right away? The statement she made was made in confidence to this person and may have been made after a few drinks....but we know this person has a mental illness history. The very last thing we want is for the cops to go calling on this lady for supposed threats. Its an increase of station security that we need above all else. She has NOT threatened any harm to anyone else, just to herself, but that doesn't rule out targets of opportunity if and when it happens. With the current state of affairs in tv news, incidents like this are a possibility at any newsroom right now.

[wx or not]

This is a serious question. I need some input from newsroom regulars.
So how do I warn management without them calling out the police and making it a huge issue which might push this lady over the edge right away? With the current state of affairs in tv news, incidents like this are a possibility at any newsroom right now.
First of all, the police cannot get involved unless there is a credible threat. Has anything surfaced yet? No. "Boy who cried wolf" is all it would be. If and when she shows up, give her a camera and mike, and let her go at it. Just don't film or show it, ever, if she follows through. She wants attention, somehow; if you give her "ammunition" to get attention, so be it.

[DoneThatToo]

Seems the easy answer is to not let her in the station. Simple solution to complex problem. Let mgnt. put out the word that this person is not allowed past the lobby and is not welcome to stay there for too long. Anybody who violates this straight forward, easy to obey directive can join her in the ranks of the unemployeed. Staff needs no explanation other that as an exemployee she isn't welcome.

[Obewon]

You are absolutely obligated to notify the company. Let them figure out how to handle it.

[adam & doctor drew]

confused.
is your concern for the person, or the company?

I think we're burying the lead.
if the person's depressed enough to do this, she needs help.
get her that.
or get in touch with her close friends & family.

who cares about where she does it?
would you feel better if she did it in her apartment, or in a park, or at the beach, or in the station parking lot?
seems to me that whether she gets let into the station or not is the smallest of the problems here.

[Clever Login Name]

I think it's a moot point if your station or the neighborhood around it is in a designated 'gun free zone'. Then she wouldn't be able to bring a gun in there and kill herself or anyone else.

[Bureau Chief]

Well to those with serious answers, thanks. This persons family has long since disavowed themselves over anything she does, and has zero contact with her. I did indeed warn management about this morning. The chances of her shooting someone else was too high. Personally, I am of the opinion that each individual has the right to end his/her life if they so choose but that right ends when they endanger others.

[s'news]

I think you did the right thing by telling management.

[Ping-Pong Ball]

I think you did the right thing by telling management.

I hope it's not a Fox Affiliate, b/c the first thing Management would do is install extra cameras in the news rooms to catch all the action.

On a more serious note, if this person works in the media, you might want to ask to have this thread deleted. What if the person were to read all that you have shared about them on Medialine? Even though it was written anonymously, what was written by you could unintentionally hurt the one you are trying to help.

[hoosiergirl]

You definitely did the right thing. How would you have felt later if she really did it and took others in the process. You can't make statements like this and not expect people to find out and be concerned.

[!]

You are absolutely obligated to notify the company. Let them figure out how to handle it.And make sure they supply every employee with a free handgun in case she does show up.

[Brain Cramp]

I know of a female anchor who, one night, after many drinks, called a friend outside the news biz and threatened the same kind of thing. She was unhappy at work and was rambling drunkenly about this and that when she stated that maybe she should just kill herself on the air some night. Her friend freaked about that and after thinking it through decided to contact her friend's ND boss.

Long story short... the anchor lost her job because she was deemed "unstable." Her version of the story is that her threat was just a drunken rant and that she never would have killed herself...not in a million years. She and her friend are no longer friends as you might imagine.

This doesn't really relate to your issue, Chief, but I just thought I'd share another example of how perhaps this isn't as isolated as one might think.

By the way, the anchor went to another station soon thereafter and has had no problems with anyone since.

[TVMattNYC]

Calling management isn't enough. You need to intervene to help this poor lady.

Please visit this link and help her.

http://www.save.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=705E1907-C4DD-5D32-2C7087CE5924CCA4

Go.

NOW.

[Obewon]

And make sure they supply every employee with a free handgun in case she does show up.

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." ("General Introduction to Psychoanalysis," S. Freud)