So far, much of my writing about the Avery Doninger Civil Rights case has focused on the freedom of speech issues, or the educational issues. I haven’t touched the public relations aspect, and it seems like it is time to do so. When Avery’s mom was on Colin McEnroe’s show, Colin and his cohost talked about how this is the sort of case that needs to get solved with pitch forks and burning torches. When you look at the virtual pitchforks, it doesn’t look great for Region 10.

As I reviewed my access logs to find out what is bringing people to this site, a couple searches jumped out at me. The first was a Google Blog Search on “REGION 10 DUFFY PRESS RELEASE”. My Deconstruction of the press release came up as the top entry. Granted, Kevin Roberts article based on the press release is up on the Register Citizen site, as well as at Cool Justice, but still, if the top ranking of your press release is a deconstruction of it, maybe you’ve got some PR issues.

The second search term that caught me eye was Google’s “region 10 superintendent + ct”. I didn’t come up as the first item in that one. That honor went to an article in the Register Citizen about public hearing about Paula Schwartz allegedly failing to inform parents about an issue with pornography at school. (I do hope none of the pictures included a ‘douchebag’.)

The second article was from CTNewsJunkie about Attorney Christine Chinni, acting on Paula Schwartz’ behalf refusing to comply with an FOI request.

My article about Insurance and Building Contracts in Connecticut came in third, and it is only after all of these that an article about Region 10 seeking a new Superintendent from the Bristol Press showed up.

I cannot help but wonder if the person doing the search on “Region 10 Superintendent + CT” was a potential job applicant trying to figure out what they might be getting into by applying for the job. The first three stories perhaps aren’t the sort that you want job applicants focusing on.

All of this shows that the folks at Region 10 just don’t get the Internet. By trying to thwart criticism online, they have actually opened the flood gates and they need to rethink their Internet strategy.