Is It Better to Just Disclose?

Recently, the Osseo-Maple Grove Hockey Association ("OMGHA") has been under a significant amount of media attention. First, it started with the suspension of a OMGHA hockey coach, followed by the suspension of thirteen hockey players. Throughout the course of this scandal, few details were released. Even as coaches were reinstated and votes of "no confidence" were almost pursued, parents and administration leaked very few details about the incident that occurred.

As I've been following this story, a common theme came up. At the end of nearly every article, there was a sentence stating: "the school board has declined to give details of the incident due to Data Privacy laws." With this statement I couldn't help but think about Parnigoni v. St. Columba's Nursery School. While Parnigoni was technically a false light case, the implications of the case apply here - how much disclosure should there be to people who are immediately impacted by a certain situation? And further, who should decide what to disclose? Furthermore, what exactly are these "law"?

With the OMGHA scandal, it is arguable that Coach Stefano's reputation has already been brought into question by the general public. I have no affiliation or connection to this hockey association, but my immediate impressions were that Coach Stefano was the root of the event (based on his initial suspension) and the students, for participating, needed some sort of punishment (based on their subsequent suspension).

When there are situations, such as this one, with a scandal involving a sport and a coach, busy minds can't help but think of Jerry Sandusky. My question here is whether it is better to let busy minds speculate as to what occurred, or to simply disclose the nature of the events. Which approach truly leads to the least amount of reputational damage for both Coach Stefano and OMGHA? Is this really a private matter when it is concerning a school, which we as taxpayers fund? Should the public have a right to know what is going on in its schools? I know for certain that if I were a parent with a child in OMGHA, I would feel that I needed to know what occurred to know if I should be uncomfortable with my child being around this person.

Luckily, details leaked nearly a month after the incident, and provide a great example as to why details maybe needed to leak earlier. As stated above, I thought Coach Stefano was the root of the event, and the students merely participated. As it turns out, the students were the root of the event, and Coach Stefano is taking the heat from the incident. However, it appears that the reputational damage has been done, despite best efforts to hide this from the public.