Showing posts with label Morning Call. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morning Call. Show all posts

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Insensitive Morning Call?

One of Villa's many claims is that the Morning Call has conspired with Lehigh County DA Jim Martin to suppress the truth about his daughter's death. Robert LaBarre, the drunk driver responsible for her death, is the son of a prominent local attorney whose firm occasionally represents the paper.

Sounds plausible, on the face of it, as most conspiracy theories do.

But here's a link to the sensitive account rendered by the paper in the aftermath of Sheena's death.
Those who knew Villa say she was a magnet for friends, and a mentor to younger cousins and students at Miss Tanya's Expression of Dance school in Lower Nazareth Township, where she taught for six years.

"Everybody around her loved her," said Villa's mother, Barbara Maquera. "They just loved being with Sheena."

Villa had dedicated her life to dancing. At Miss Tanya's, she taught ballet and choreographed routines for dance competitions.

"When she got on stage, she took command," said Logan Novak of Allentown, who described Villa, her friend of more than 10 years, as "magical."

Villa's colleagues are collecting messages from students that will be posted on the school's Web site. The school held a prayer vigil Friday, while Villa lay in intensive care for most of the day. Later, instructors gathered around her bedside to say goodbye. The school will be closed until Wednesday to mark her passing.

"It's one thing to be a teacher and to teach dance, but to touch the lives of the students like she has" said Tanya Yost, the owner of the school, trailing off. "It's been so hard. I am not understanding what happened here."

Amanda Morgan, who created the shrine with Novak, recalled an evening in the fall when the three women visited the Hamilton Family Diner for a late-night snack. Morgan said Villa met a man who had also studied ballet. Within seconds, the two were providing an impromptu recital for diners.

"Every single time I saw her, she was always smiling," said Morgan, of Alburtis.
As recently as February, the Morning Call blogged a Sheena Villa fundraiser.

Does this seem like a newspaper trying to sweep things under the rug?