Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Was it really necessary to put the method of suicide in this article? It just makes it more painful for the family and friends of the victim!

How horrifying for the family to read this headline. I love the Patch but was wondering if there wasn't a better way to report this. My heart breaks for the family and friends of the victim! There is not a person in town who is not mourning this death and yet another suicide.

The use of the manner of a death in a Patch HEADLINE is the first time I have been sorely disappointed in the Patch. Please. Please. Use decency and common sense. Couldn't you just say..."Death reported at Kinder...etc"? As it stands now, it is listed that way under Most Popular Articles. I hope you rise above such sensationalism...it was a shocking word to use as it was, to say nothing of the effect on the family as well as the community. I trust this will be a lesson learned.

Prayers going out to this family. Please be more responsible and sensitive in the reporting of such tragic news. I cannot imagine the pain this family is having to endure, let's not add to it with headlines such as this!

Agree completely with all above. Good time to use "journalistic discretion."

I was shocked and so disappointed to see this headline in our community newspaper. Have some discretion and give the family the respect for their privacy that this deserves.

This headline turned my stomach too. Please change it for the sake of the family and in honor of all the good work this coach did for our community.

I understand the responses here and grieve for the loss of this family. However, Reporting a death in the community and accurately reporting that the individual was found in a maintenance room of a local park would certainly leave me wondering is it safe to go to Kinder? Is there a killer loose in the community? NOT reporting that the death was caused by suicide would leave alot of unansered questions as to the safety of the community. Again, our sincere condolances to the family and friends of the deceased.

Your headline is very distasteful, though factual is was not needed. Shame on you.

I find that the rumors and speculations are now put to rest with this factual reporting of an upsetting event that occurred in our community. Those of you who chose to identify the victim by your comments should note that the Patch did not. In fact, this short article is appropriately placed in the police/fire column and is in no way linked to any other new items. Those "in the know" are upset due to your position of being "in the know". It is tragic and deeply emotional all around.

I want to see how Amy Leahy and Maribel Ibrahim react to this headline. Will they say shame on Leslie Hunt or will they take her side ???

For the rest of our community who do not know "who" such as myself until reading the comments regarding the headline for this story, can we PLEASE remove these postings for the sake of the family? The last thing that we, as a community wish to do is to create further, unnecessary heartache. Please remove these postings.........??

Thank you for your comments, and I understand your concerns. All information in this post was based on information provided by police and fire officials. Please feel free to email me at Leslie.Hunt@Patch.com if you would like to discuss this further.

Leslie Hunt : Are you passing the buck ? Are you saying that the police and fire officials created and edited your headline ??

It is amazing to me how everyone is "picking" on the reporter! Really? is that truly necessary? Maybe the word suicide would have been better, but I think at this point it does not matter. The tragedy here is, that someone from our community felt compelled to end his/her life! There are too many of these deaths in our community and instead of bickering about a headline we might all want to think about how we could change this in the future. We lose to many loved ones right here in our own backyard. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family. May they have the strength they need to deal with their tragic loss!

Amen Claudia, I could not have said it any better then myself !! Thanks for your comments I completely agree with you. Let's focus on the real situation here and not they way a "Headline" was written.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family during this tough time.

Finally! I was going to post what Claudia posted, but she very eloquently covered the point. Before anyone else wants to continue questioning whether Leslie Hunt was "sensational", let's get a definition:
Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensationalism

Clearly, while this news is upsetting, it is not sensationalism. I also have to agree with Julie M. that reporting facts, while at times, unpleasant, is what has to be done, especially when it impacts the community.

What is glaring to me is that short of the last two posts (Thanks Gloria and Wendi), no one is even curious as to what would lead an involved community member (and I don't know who it is) to lose all hope. Clearly, the suicide rate in Severna Park is alarming and it is indicative of a bigger problem in our community, not just how a story is written. We need to band together as a community and figure out how we can support each other instead of continuing to live in a society where everything is "just fine as long as it doesn't affect me". I pray for the family and I also pray that we would seek guidance about rectifying a situation like this. In this pressure cooker of life, something has to give and it shouldn't be a person's life. Let's reprioritize what's important and listen to what these tragedies are telling us.

Maribel : Of course you are going to take the side of Leslie Hunt because you are in cahoots with her. Leslie Hunt and Maribel could care less that the majority of Patch readers want Leslie to change the headline of this story. Leslie Hunt snubs her nose and refuses to change the headline for her readers. Arrogance. By the way Maribel since you are Miss Statistics so us all the web link to the current number of suicides in Severna Park so we can all see it...

Suicide is a shortcut way to say that someone died because of the sometimes fatal illness of depression. It is rarely a rational decision, and yet we tend to treat it that way. If someone dies as a result of a heart attack and never addressed the preventable heart disease, we don't hold them responsible. Depression is a serious illness that is hard to treat and too many go without treatment. This is the take away here. Why does someone lose all hope? It is sometimes the nature of this illness.

I have to agree with Maribel, Wendi,and Claudia. The tragedy is the event itself, not the reporting of it. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has a very informative website for anyone interested in learning about the warning signs and statistics concerning suicide. http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=1

My heart goes out this family and I pray for them during this horrific time. The passing of this individual is without a doubt incredibly tragic.

However, please do try to understand that this is essentially a press release issued by a county agency over a "wire"; it is not an editorial piece or an article where a reporter would be interviewing individuals and/or developing content outside of said release. The Washington Post feature is entirely different, and was well constructed in my opinion.

Ms. Hunt is not being arrogant and should not be criticized for posting a factual, informational fire department release where no names are used.

Cmon people get a prespective back. Ok the article was not crafted to our sensitivities. I think the bigger question is why? Why did this person take their life.
This economy and the way we as a society interact sometimes (like the posts above) is petty. Some people may just cant take it anymore. We as citizens and as a community need to do better, in taking care and being constructive not competitive or negative to each other.

she is being arrogant for not changing headline from hanging to suicide...

Leslie Hunt has been very professional in her reporting since the onset of Patch.com. Any person questioning her motive or her objective journalism style has not followed this site very closely. This was a news report at the time of the occurrence with no knowledge of other personal facts. Leslie was merely getting information to us in a timely and honest fashion. Thank you Leslie for your hard work and dedication to the residents of Severna Park.

This was a very sad and unpleasant event. However, the job of a reporter is to report those events. I wanted to now about it. I agree with the comment above that I would have been totally freaked out if there was just a report of a body found at Kinder Park.
I agree with the posts above that we should not be criticizing the messenger, but trying to determine why this happened and how to prevent it in the future.

My heart goes out to the family now & in the weeks & months ahead. I don't think it was necessary that the article or "press release" be so detailed & graphic. Have some respect for the family & friends.

Patch reported this incident because it occurred in a public place. We are closing comments to be sensitive to the family and friends of the deceased.

Susan Jenkins
Associate Regional Editor, Maryland