WINNEBAGO COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – Following a request from the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, WTAQ News will not be making a formal inquiry into the name or photo of the student accused of stabbing a school resource officer at Oshkosh West High School earlier this week.
Sheriff John Matz sent out a press release asking all media outlets, local and other, to not make inquiries to obtain the teen’s name or booking photograph. Matz says school shootings are on the rise, as well as copy cats looking for their five minutes of fame.
“It’s a 16-year old male from Oshkosh. That’s it. What more do you need? There will be a lot more released about the whys and the whats and what happened. The name and the photo, how important are they? Let’s avoid that recognition,” Matz tells WTAQ News, “There is nothing more important than the safety of our children, so please, I’m asking our media and the media abroad leave it at that.”
The teen was treated at a hospital after being shot by the school resource officer on Tuesday. Matz confirms once the teen was released, they were arrested by Special Agents of the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation, for Attempted First Degree Intentional Homicide and is currently being housed in the Winnebago County Jail.
“We’re at a tipping point. And if the press can help us by not giving this individual the recognition, maybe we can make a difference. Maybe we can start to look for another solution. Now, it’s much bigger and it’s much greater, but maybe we can make a difference together,” Matz says.
The school resource officer, identified as Officer Mike Wissink, is recovering from injuries sustained in Tuesday’s incident.
