Public needs to know all the facts before judging others

In the fair town of Aberdeen, N.J. is where we lay our scene. Slipping into a restroom immediately after her arrival at her senior prom May of this year, Melissa Drexler delivered a 6-pound, 6-ounce baby boy.

Minutes later, maintenance workers discovered the bloody sight and the heavy garbage bag with the lifeless corpse of Baby Drexler is inside.

After allegedly requesting a song, Drexler admitted to giving birth to the baby and was transported to a nearby hospital to complete the birthing process.

The image the media presented was its only source of connection.

Residing less than 30 minutes outside Forked River and Lacey Township, I witnessed first hand the media circus parading around town and camping out outside her home to gather late-breaking developments.

I'm not saying that as a reporter, I wouldn't do the same thing in their shoes, but I would have been more tactful and would have gotten comments from her family and friends, allowing them an equal opportunity to share their thoughts on the subject.

Even if society refused to believe their stories, I still would have done everything journalistically possible to let them be heard.

While the country and the world passed judgments, Jersey residents and prosecutors began ridiculing Drexler. I am not condoning, by any means, what Drexler did or claiming that she is a victim.

What she did was unimaginable, but isn't society and the legal system based on the belief of innocent until proven guilty and not vice versa? I heard a group of women at a local beach made comments about what a heartless disgrace she was to human society, and how she was a murderer guilty of manslaughter.

Also, this summer, I had a job working at a law firm nearby Monmouth County, where Drexler is being prosecuted.

When I was inside the courthouse searching for a restroom, I stumbled upon a prosecutor who pointed me in the right direction and said, "Now don't take too much time in there, we might begin to wonder if you're giving birth or something." I know that the path Drexler decided to take was morally wrong. Wasn't it Dante who wrote, "In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself in a dark wood for I had lost the right path."

Pregnant teenagers whether they are in high school like Drexler or college like Amy Grossberg need to know that they are not alone and there are professionals willing to help them.

According to an article by the associate editor of Newsweek, 54 babies were killed in 1995 within a week of their birth, all but a few of the killings were committed by the babies' mothers. Newborn homicide, often referred to as neonaticide, is not the only option. Anything is better than that extreme.

With a simple turn to the Yellow Pages, mothers can discover alternatives such as counseling, adoption or abortion. Maybe it's the idealist in me, but I truly believe that there is hope for these teenagers and society in general.

An old proverb states, "Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear." Maybe, one day, society will take this proverb into consideration and not make quick judgments.

Or maybe I need to remove the rose-tinted glasses from my eyes once again.