Rapid response and proactive communications plan reassure parents after arrest of daycare worker
Situation:
A former male employee was arrested on child molestation charges at a local facility. While the accused had left campus six months earlier, the administration was concerned about the possibility of potential victims from his 5 years with the on-site campus student day care center. The institution turned to BMCG for strategic guidance and communications support.
Actions / Recommendations:
Helped leadership recognize need to proactively share this troubling information prior to media disclosure
Developed a “Planning Case” to help appropriately assess risk of multiple victims—children of current faculty, grad students, as well as those who have left campus.
Recommended engagement of specialty firm—known to BMCG through previous engagements—with expertise in child molestation, audits, psychological counseling
Recommended stakeholder-centric communications strategy with focus be on those most directly impacted, i.e., current/past parents
Developed communications strategy, hard Q&A, script for parent meetings, script for staff meetings, media strategy, letters distributed to 1500 potentially impacted parents within 24 hours.
Results:
Due to speediness of response, overall openness, and creation of tangible steps the school planned to take; parents—faculty and graduate students—of children in daycare were, naturally, concerned but pleased that information was proactively shared. Likewise, they appreciated the supportive approach and focus on reducing the future risk. Only one story was published about the institution on this issue, and it was focused on the responsiveness of the administration.
