A Textbook Case of Mismanagement
Warren Township Schools are a textbook case about how not to handle a crisis. You probably know by now that back in November two middle school students were caught having sex in an Industrial Arts Class while other students watched and the teacher was distracted. The school district isn’t commenting about the matter, only saying that it’s been addressed.
I don’t know who came up with this public relations strategy but they should be fired. Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand student privacy laws and confidentiality, however in a situation like this, the school district has a responsibility to tell parents what it can, within the bounds of the law, and make everyone’s life easier.
You would think the school district would want to get in front of this considering past controversies. Allow me to list a few…
In February 2007, Zachary Rutherford filed a lawsuit against Warren Central High School administrators who he says failed to discipline a student who attacked him twice in 2001, ultimately causing him to leave for private school because he feared for his safety. Rutherford hopes to win damages from the school district and the bully’s family.
In April 2006, a school board stopped disciplinary proceedings against 14-year-old Elliot Voge, an Eagle Scout who was suspended and recommended for expulsion by Stoneybrook Middle School Principal Jimmy Meadows. Voge forgot he had his Swiss Army knife in his coat when he was dropped off at school and immediately turned it into the school treasurer when he entered school, but Meadows still acted punitively because the school district requires students to report the presence of knives and other possible weapons but leaves the punishment for possessing a knife up to administrators.
In February 2006, a now-fired Warren Township janitor, 34-year-old Aaron Giroud, was charged with child molesting after a 7-year-old male student at Liberty Park Elementary came forward. Videotape shows Giroud leading the boy into a room and emerging four times within 11 minutes.
In October 2005, a 23-year-old substitute teacher, Brian Slack, at Warren Central High School was accused of emailing an explicit photo of himself to a sophomore at the Eastside school. The student said she had met Slack while he was a substitute in fall of 2004, and after class in April of that year, he began texting her, asking her to engage in oral sex with him, and asked her to send him nude photos of herself.
In February 2003, authorities arrested David Shaw, a former Warren Township School Board president, in order to question him on his financial dealings.
With this type of record, I don’t think “no comment” is the best answer.
