Struck by a comment from WHAM-TV's Patrice Walsh that schools other than Holy Cross had asked media not to attend closing ceremonies, we reached out to the WHAM assignment desk for an explanation. Here's what we were told:
"...we here at 13 received a letter from the Diocese that strongly warned us NOT to go to any of the schools or talk to any parents or children."
Should we have expected any less from the Diocese, still acting in secrecy, and preferring that this whole debacle just quietly go away? How disappointing.
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3 comments:
Our school requested the diocese ask the media to stay away from our school on the last day, to respect the students' privacy during such a hard day. I don't know if any of the others did. In our specific case, we felt that there were plenty of other end-of-year events that they were able to cover.
At Holy Cross, we were approached by other schools asking if we agreed that the media should stay away on the last day, and we thought about it. As emotionally exhausted as we all are, we felt that the media had been very sympathetic to our story, and the last day of school is a BIG part of the story. The public needs to see the fallout of the decision to close 13 schools. Every reporter was respectful and caring. And Patrice Walsh, who has covered Holy Cross since the announcement in January, cried with us, even though she has no affiliation with Holy Cross.
We were not playing to the media by any means. They asked if they could come, and we said it was okay. Our prayer service on June 20, although tear-filled, was a great expression of who we are as a parish and school family. We remain hopeful that one day, we will re-open our school. Our new parish pre-school is the seed that, with God's help, will grow into that school.
I didn't mean to suggest that you were playing to the media. Our families were tired of all the fluff and misquotes by the media every time they gave an interview. They were not writing the true story, that has not come out. At the same time, we knew we would be letting the diocese off the hook by not allowing the media access to all the tears.We just didn't want our children used any more.
I thought channel 13 did an excellent job with the Holy Cross story. I loved that you ended the year with a Mass, as it should be. Our parish is also hopeful that the remaining preschool will be something to build on in the future. We are not giving up. Even if our children are too old to attend, most of us are committed to reopening in the future.
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