CSC should reevaluate its notification plan
News often spreads quickly in a small community like Chadron State; however, for some employees and students, news of CSC freshman Sterling Atkin’s death apparently didn’t spread quickly enough.
Some students and employees found out about the death the night it happened on Saturday. Others found out about it from their friends or on social media sites on Sunday. Still, some didn’t know anything had happened until Monday or later.
One teacher, unaware of Atkin’s death, delivered her Monday morning lecture on the stages of life, and taught through an hour-long lesson about death and dying. Atkins was enrolled in that class. Some students affected by the tragedy cried while others were uncomfortable, Jennifer Parker, freshman of Arvada, Colo., who is also enrolled in the class, said.
In another case, a student came to class on Monday asking to be excused from class to mourn the death of their friend, only to be met by a baffled professor who had no idea of the weekend’s incident.
Striking a balance between sensitivity to the dead’s family and the need of the public to know can be challenging, but Chadron State could have better acted in its response to Atkin’s death.
Although an email wasn’t sent notifying CSC employees or students of Atkin’s death, the college posted a press release about it on its website Monday morning, President Randy Rhine said Wednesday.
“It’s not our role to get ahead of the [notification] process,” Rhine said. “Especially if it was not a safety issue.”
“We always wait ‘til the family is notified,” Tena Cook, interim marketing coordinator, said Wednesday, adding the fact that it was a weekend was also a factor.
CSC doesn’t have a consistent notification policy when dealing with death, Rhine said.
“We look at those things on a case-by-case basis and follow the county attorney’s lead in releasing information,” he said. “I’m always going to default on the side of the family.”
Most would agree that publicly releasing information prior to the family being informed is in bad taste; however, as Atkin’s family was notified Saturday night, why was the rest of the campus left in the dark until mid-Monday morning?
Death doesn’t happen on an 8-5 weekday schedule. The fact that it occurred on a weekend is no excuse.
CSC has had its share of student deaths. In lieu of these circumstances, it seems the college should evaluate its plan to keep the campus informed.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 18, 2013
The sentence “Most would agree that waiting to publicly release information prior to the family being informed is in bad taste” was incorrectly published. The sentence should have read, “Most would agree that publicly releasing information prior to the family being informed is in bad taste.”