I think I feel sorry for Carla Rivera and Andrew Blankstein. Blankstein and Rivera wrote this story in the Los Angeles Times last week.

Why do I feel sorry for Blankstein and Rivera? Because it so ably demonstrates the talent they have in the stable there at the Times that they were able to take what should be a compelling read and turn it into the bore of the century.

Attack raises doubts at school
Parents question Harvard-Westlake's handling of the troubled student. Classmates say they had tried to reach out to him.

That's the head and subhed. Do you want to read that story? Neither do I.

Now, what happened at Harvard-Westlake was no Virginia Tech, but it's also not your typical schoolyard fight.

An attempted murder case in which a Harvard-Westlake School student attacked a classmate with a hammer has roiled the exclusive college preparatory campus nestled in Coldwater Canyon and raised questions about whether more could have been done to prevent it.

Parents said they were pressing administrators to explain what system was in place to identify troubled students and whether red flags about this particular 17-year-old's behavior were taken seriously.

As classmates rallied to the beaten 18-year-old student's bedside with flowers and get-well cards, they also spoke of her alleged assailant as someone who seemed to prefer being left alone and anguished about school and his personal issues.

"People really tried to reach him, but he just wasn't receptive," said one student, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because the school had told students not to speak to the media about the incident. "He was always the odd man out."

No one, however, could recall previous violent incidents directed at himself or others.

Friends and family of the victim said they believe that the girl was targeted, even though the two shared only a few conversations.

Yawn, boring.

What do they bury at the end of the story?

The girl said she was invited to drive with the suspect to a Jamba Juice near campus after they had finished taking an Advanced Placement exam.

The two sipped smoothies and talked casually. Once they were back in the car, he reached into the back seat for a backpack, which he placed between his legs.

Instead of returning to campus, however, the boy detoured to a quiet residential street. She said he appeared anxious, and she became increasingly alarmed. He told her that he was thinking of committing suicide. She urged that they return to school to get help from a counselor. He told her: "It isn't going to happen that way."

He also said that he was going to kill himself and that he wasn't going to do it alone. She reached for the backpack, believing that he had a gun inside, but he pulled out a claw hammer instead and began striking her on the head and face.

She used her arms and hands to try to cover herself while fending off the blows. With her legs, she pinned him to the driver's side door.

A witness who was walking on the street with a neighbor said, "Arms were flying. It looked bad. We couldn't believe it."

As police were called, the boy got out of the car, went to the passenger side, pulled the girl from the car by her hair and continued the assault until the hammer broke. He then began to choke her. To save her life, she bit his finger. He screamed and said "I'm done."

The boy got back in the car and sped off, said the witness, who asked to remain anonymous, fearing reprisal. As the girl sought help, her shattered leg gave way, and she collapsed in the street.

Assuming that Blankstein and Rivera didn't turn that story in with the lead buried at the bottom, I feel sorry for them.

On the other hand, every editor who even glanced at this story before it got into the paper should be checked for a pulse. Once they've been verified as having a beating heart, they should next be checked for a brain.

And they wonder why people don't read the newspaper, when so much effort has gone into making it as boring as possible.