Crisis Communication in Action (Opinion)

The arrest of Fayetteville administrator Barry Gebhart should make any company assess its own public relations damage control plan.

Gebhart, a highly successful basketball coach (1992-2010) and currently the athletics director at Fayetteville, was arrested Oct. 22 on a felony charge of Internet stalking of a child.

When the news broke the following morning, it was met with an emotion one might expect — surprise.

You didn’t hear that from Alan Wilbourn, even though he may have been having those feelings, too.

Wilbourn, the public information officer for Fayetteville Public Schools, was the first school representative to speak on camera about Gebhart’s arrest.

Legally and professionally, he couldn’t have handled the bombshell any better. He didn’t represent the school’s initial response as sadness, shock, etc. The school’s initial response, of course, is that with any case like this, the teacher is immediately placed on administrative leave, and that school officials would cooperate fully with any law enforcement.

Wilbourn was the picture of crisis communication in action, at a time when the district badly needed it.

Fayetteville is one of the largest school districts in the state, and is no different than any other large company. No business is exempt from a member of its executive leadership team being gone immediately, and being gone under dubious circumstances.

The focus of the media coverage surrounding Gebhart’s arrest is, naturally, how an administrator with a family and solid reputation among peers could have such intentions.

But from a business perspective, there is a greater issue here.

As a business, when a member within your executive leadership team is faced with a similar crisis, are you prepared from a corporate and public relations standpoint to handle it?