EDITORIAL: Remarkable Boy, Remarkable Story

Feb 28, 07:50 AM

Current Headlines: By The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

Feb. 28--They didn't let Clay Moore talk at his big press conference Tuesday, for good reason. Someday when he's older, perhaps he will.

Understandably, Clay's parents and Sheriff Charlie Wells are trying to shield him from the tsunami of publicity that came from his abduction at gunpoint and his remarkable escape from duct-tape bindings 2½ hours later. The glaring media spotlight is not necessarily a good thing for a normal 13-year-old in any circumstances, let alone in the aftermath of a traumatic kidnapping. There was in his stepfather's plea for privacy, a protective instinct all-too-often lost in high-intensity media coverage these days: "Just let Clay and his little brother go back to being boys," asked Stephen Kelle, before ushering Clay away from the microphone at a press conference in the sheriff's office.

Yet we sense that Clay could have handled a few questions just fine, for he obviously has some extraordinary qualities for a 13-year-old. The story that his stepfather told of how Clay came to have a safety pin and how he had the presence of mind to first conceal it from his captor by putting it in his mouth and when left alone use it to fray the tape bindings is as exciting as any Hollywood movie. He deserves all of the praise the adults heaped on him Tuesday.

Besides being dramatic, the pin anecdote offered a hint of the kind of old-fashioned parents Clay has. Rather than run out and buy Clay a new school uniform jacket when his old one turned up with a hole, Kelle said, "We told him to pin the hole up because it was kinda' his fault" the jacket got ripped. Without a torn jacket, no safety pin . . .?

Well, we didn't get to hear Clay fill in the details, at least not yet. Certainly they ought to get him an 'A' paper if he chooses to tell his story for a Manatee School for the Arts writing assignment. Perhaps he could use it in the FCAT exam he'll have to make up when he returns to school.

If not a first-person account, there were, however, in this brief press conference some useful insights into this latest crime against a child. One is the importance of cell phones. School officials may have difficulty with this, but Sheriff Wells said it unequivocally: "All kids should have cell phones." He didn't say starting at what age, but one assumes he meant middle-schoolers, as that is what Clay is. Law enforcement "must use every piece of technology we have to prevent crime," and so should parents, Wells said.

Here, too, in the account of how Clay freed himself is an opportunity for parents to draw a lesson for their children on what to do if put into a similar situation. First lesson is to not get into the abductor's car. Second is to not panic, but to look for ways to escape. Third is to go up to adults, even strangers, and ask for help if given a moment of freedom.

This case showed how important cooperation is between various law enforcement agencies in conducting a manhunt. Wells credited the FBI, Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Florida Department of Law Enforcement with full cooperation in looking for the suspect, Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno, a Mexican farmworker.

And, yes, the news media coverage that sometimes seems excessive is an important factor in breaking a case like this, as validated Tuesday by Clay's father, mother, stepfather and the sheriff himself. All thanked reporters for their coverage and urged viewers and readers of the media coverage to call in any tips that could lead to Beltran-Moreno's capture.

And finally, there was religious faith. All of those who spoke Tuesday gave credit to God for delivering Clay safely back to his family.

The family's plea to be left alone in order to "get back to normal" should be honored. They need time to process this trauma away from the spotlight, in the privacy of their home and their community.

Someday, it may make a heck of a story: how God, a safety pin and a boy who didn't panic led to a happy ending for all, save one: the suspect, Beltran-Moreno, who has to be a desperate man, looking for a place to hide. For now, the hunt for Beltran-Moreno goes on.

Talk back

Would you be able to think as fast on your feet in a traumatic situation as Clay Moore did? Log on to Bradenton.com to share your views.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.

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