North Penn School District drew national attention on Wednesday, after a photo depicting a Pennfield Middle School teacher taping a mask to a student’s face went viral on social media.
Initially posted by the North Penn Stronger Together Facebook page on Monday evening, the image has been shared thousands of times as the national and international news media seized on the mask controversy. At the local level, there have been calls for the community to attend the Thursday evening action meeting for the North Penn Board of School Directors, so they can voice their opposition to the incident and show support for the family.
But the family of the student says they want no part of that.
In an exclusive statement released by the family to North Penn Now, the mother of the student in the photo said the situation has grown out of control, with “certain individuals” taking the matter into their own hands and making the issue far greater than it needed to be. The family requested anonymity as a condition of the release, which North Penn Now granted upon vetting their identity.
The statement from the mother reads, in full:
To the North Penn Community:
I am the mother of the child that has been seen with a mask being taped to his face in a classroom at Pennfield Middle School. This situation has taken on a life of its own. I have chosen to issue this statement today because it is utterly out of control. My intention is to level set and provide some details of what my family is experiencing, because how this has evolved is exactly what I wanted to avoid. From the beginning, it has been critical to maintain anonymity for our family while we work on a resolution.
This statement is apolitical in that it is neither supportive nor critical of any side of the aisle. Rather, this statement is intended to level set and clarify a few things.
As I was navigating how this would be handled by the district, I reached out to another parent in the North Penn community to share the image and my story in a private group with the intention of gaining local support to attend the school board meeting. It was made crystal clear in my communication, and in her communication with the private group, that the permission to share the image and my story was given to her only and was given for the limited purpose of sharing it with this private group, with the clear caveat that in no circumstance should it be shared publicly.
What has since transpired is like a scene from my worst nightmare. Certain individuals felt compelled to take matters into their own hands, including contacting local authorities and disseminating this image of my son to various media outlets. As a result, the picture of my son and the story have been shared with various news organizations, including, but not limited to, Fox News, USA Today, Yahoo News, Reddit, The Independent and the London News Wire. Individuals that have taken the liberty to post this image and further disseminate it, as well as these news organizations, claim to have done so with my permission. As recently as this afternoon, certain parents in the district were on a talk show and stated “… so they gave us permission to share the photo for appropriate action.” This is entirely false. Except as indicated above with respect to sharing with a private group, for a private and limited purpose, at no point did I give permission for the image to be shared publicly, including with any news organizations. Any suggestion that I have done so, or any inference of a viewpoint being attributed to me, is false. Moreover, in that same talk show interview, one such guest discussed the severe emotional turmoil that her children have gone through due to the pandemic. It is both unfortunate and disappointing that the severe emotion turmoil that my family is enduring, which is being exacerbated by it “going viral,” seems to have fallen by the wayside in this.
While I appreciate parents and groups alike coming to our defense, as stated above, what this has evolved into is exactly what I wanted to avoid. Make no mistake, what we are going through because of all of this pales in comparison to the incident itself, which, I will emphasize, was serious in itself. Now, in addition to having to deal with the aftershock of this from the local community and, for my son, his friends and classmates, we are in fear that our identity will be leaked and we will find a host of parents and news cameras on my front step. If I had any idea that this would evolve to such a level, I would never have permitted it to be shared with that private group.
To make it as clear as possible: no person, group or news organization has been, or currently is, authorized to publish the picture of my son.
In response to North Penn Now’s request for comment, former school board candidate Jessie Bradica said that North Penn Stronger Together was given permission to publish the content of their post and denied having any role in the story going viral.
“At no time did anyone acting on behalf of North Penn Stronger Together contact local authorities, media outlets or any other organization to disseminate the story,” said Bradica. “In fact, North Penn Stronger Together has taken active steps to protect the identity of the family and has expressly denied having the authority or willingness to authorize use of the photo.”
The group said they have text messages showing they had permission for the post, but added they don’t want to get involved in a back and forth commentary that only serves to detract from the incident itself.
Bradica said she was thankful that North Penn School District released a statement on Wednesday, adding that she wanted to issue a call to the community to allow the district’s investigation to proceed and trust that the district will do the right thing.
“What happened wasn’t appropriate, but we should respect the district and the process of their investigation,” Bradica said.
“It’s disappointing that North Penn has gone viral as a result of the wrongful actions of the educator,” Bradica said. “The district has so many great things going for it, and this is definitely not how we want to be known. It’s unfortunate. Our hearts go out to the family.”
To read more about the initial incident, click here.
See also:
North Penn Issues Statement After Image Surfaces of Teacher Taping Mask to Student
Pennfield Social Studies Teacher Passes Away on Christmas After Short Battle with COVID-19
Pennfield Basketball Player, Coach Honored By Sixers
Police, School District Officials Respond To Petition Questioning School Safety
Cosplay Causes Consternation, School Lockout in Hatfield
