Reported March 30, Oprah Winfrey's Leadership Academy School for Girls has another sex scandal within less than two years. The first scandal involved adults, this time it involves the students.
It was reported on the nydailynews.com that a 15-year-old student was expelled because she allegedly preyed on another pupil and forced other pupils to lie to investigators. A letter to the student's parents said she was found guilty of having sexual contact with a student, harassment, and bullying.
After the first scandal, Winfrey fired the headmistress for sexually molesting girls at the school. But what does Winfrey do now?
In the world of PR, you never know when a crisis may arise. For Winfrey, however, it looks like she can't run a school without sex scandals. As a PR practitioner, what would you do to improve the image of the school and make it more appealing despite the sex scandals within two years?
- Marlon Williams
I was watching the news last night and a commentor on CNN said something that I completely agree with. He said that because it's Oprah's school, this incident has become a sex scandal. If it was any other school, it would be a disciplinary issue that would garner very little media attention, but because it's Oprah's school, it's suddenly a huge scandal. I agree with that statement wholely. If I were in her PR camp, I would advise her to be open about the situation, invite the media into the school to see the students participating in regular activities and be prepared to be closely scrutinized by the public at all times.
ReplyDelete--Porsche
You know, I was reading this thinking, "a scandal with students? Someone was sleeping with a teacher?" But no, it was something absolutely unimportant. Did you know that Israel entered sovereign Sudan and bombed some vehicles that they thought were transporting weapons to their enemies?.....that's news, but it happened in January and facts are still scarce. So much stuff is happening in Africa that is real scandal, there shouldn't even be room for this outside of the Inquirer. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteMandla Deskins
As a PR practitioner, I agree with Porsche when she suggested that Oprah needs to be open about the entire situation. I believe there would be nothing better than letting people actually see what goes on inside of the school on a day to day basis. And because Oprah is so famous, her school is going to be scrutinized all of the time. So I suggest to Oprah, when situations like this arise, you always need to be open and honest.
ReplyDeleteKiah
What do you all think about getting a PR liason for the school? Someone who is there to moniter and control the news being put out about the school.
ReplyDelete