communication (was "Moscow suicide)

["Lois Melina" <lmelina@moscow.com>]

The school district did an outstanding job of communicating the student's
death to fellow students in a timely fashion and getting the crisis team
into action. One couldn't have asked for a better response from them in
that regard. Their plan, to give students opportunities to grieve while at
the same time not glorifying the act of suicide, is obviously important and
builds on a lot of training and research. I feel fortunate this crisis team
knew exactly what to do and how to do it.

The reason that there was no press release issued or other communication
with the public is probably (my opinion) because there is no one in the
district with that as their primary responsibility. There is no community
relations officer (or public relations person). While there may be people
who take on that role from time to time, my undertanding is that is not
their primary responsibility, and on Tuesday afternoon, everyone was busy
enough with their primary responsibilities, and doing a darn good job at
that.

With the district budget requiring a cut in staff, it is doubtful that
we'll see a community relations officer added to the budget any time soon.

The parent advisory committee at the high school tried to find a public
relations intern from one of the universities for this spring, but did not
get a response to our request. I believe we are still looking for one in
the fall. If anyone knows a PR student who would like an unfunded
internship, have them contact me.

Lois Melina


*****************************
Lois Melina
Editor, "Adopted Child" newsletter
P.O. Box 9362
Moscow ID 83843 USA
1-208-882-1794
orders: 1-888-882-1794
fax: 1-208-883-8035
Email: Lmelina@moscow.com
http://www.raisingadoptedchildren.com