Students and staff at Arlington High School have recently been grieving the loss of beloved coach and teacher, Mr Marsh. Some students were only made aware of this by word of mouth of other classmates, upset about that being how they found out.

This sparks the question, how should you deliver bad news to students? There’s many factors that need to be taken into account when deciding how to go about sharing the news.

Some students might not prefer to be dealt bad news while at school, preferring solitude or being surrounded by family while processing it all. This is another thing that is considered when sharing news to students.

“We also want to make sure families are aware of any information that is shared so that they have a chance to talk with their student before they are made aware of it at school,” said Gary Sabol, Director of Communications for Arlington School District.

Other students may want it delivered differently. Some people would rather have an official statement of news rather than randomly hearing it from friends.

“I really believe in the community being engaged and everything, it means a lot as a student to get an email or a message to yourself, rather than relying on somebody else to tell you what happened,” said Jason Hopkins (10).

Another thing to take into account is the family wishes and time appropriateness of the situation.

“When sharing this sort of information, we rely on the family’s wishes. This determines how much information we can share. Whatever is shared, we always want to be empathetic in our messaging,” said Sabol

When considering all factors of these unfortunate situations, it is important to remember that it’s also hard for those sharing the news, but it also has to be shared delicately.

“It’s never easy to share this sort of information. However it’s shared, it needs to be age appropriate,” said Sabol