ASD Has A PR Problem

Lehigh Valley.com is reporting, "A William Allen High School student was injured and taken to a local hospital following a group of students fighting, Allentown police confirmed... When asked about the incident, district spokeswoman Kimberly Golden Benner said through email, "We do not discuss student issues."

This is no way to handle a situation like this. By not releasing something official this can grow legs in social media along with the expected accompanying speculative conjecture that usually follows.. With a possible smartphone video upload of this incident looming out there, a school district saying "We do not discuss student issues" is not a wise choice.

This could have been handled much more wisely by releasing an official statement. Doing otherwise makes it appear WAHS is attempting to avoid attention by refusing to even talk about it in the hopes this will go away. There would be no legal repercussions in simply acknowledging indeed there was some sort of altercation by issuing a public statement. For example, here's how an official response could have been handled (but it wasn't)--Today there was a incident involving 4 or 5 of our students. William Allen officials in conjunction with the Allentown Police will further investigate the circumstance surrounding the physical altercation. Once our investigation is complete appropriate measures will be taken with the students involved.

While we consider William Allen High School to be a safe learning environment for our students, occasionally there are incidences that do occur. This is not unlike other high schools of our size who have to deal with situations like these that can occur from time to time. Rest assured the safety and well being of our students is our utmost priority.

Acts of a few do not represent the majority of our students nor does it reflect the overall campus safety or the learning environment here at WAHS. Parents and students can be further reassured we will take all the steps necessary to maintain the safest and highest learning experience possible for all our students. It's important for parents to understand both WAHS as well as throughout the Allentown School District we take these matters very seriously. We will take whatever measures necessary to try and prevent future reoccurrences within our means.That sure would have beat the hell out of a simple email to the media stating, " We do not discuss student issues." That kind of response seems kind of brusque doesn't it?