Principal John Dodig made a morning announcement on Nov. 18 in regard to the recent events concerning Freshman Football Coach Mike Pickering.

Here is the transcript from his announcement:

This freshman football coach incident is unfortunate and has brought negative attention to this fine school that I love. We want to turn this negative into a positive. My concern at the moment is that because of all the trash talk on various Facebook pages that are now becoming public on westportnow.com and will spread around the world in no time. Some of you, years from now, will find that these posts will come back to haunt you and could prevent you from getting the job you really want. There seems to be a theme developing which is to find the people who brought this situation to light and do them harm. For those of you who have read The Crucible in your English class, you know what a witch hunt can turn into. That is what I am afraid is beginning to happen.

Here is what you should be focusing on:

1) An adult made a very poor decision that also is illegal. It is no different than if an adult bought a bottle of beer for a teenager. Whatever you think of beer, it is illegal to give alcohol to a minor.

2) This man’s life has now been altered forever by his doing, and no one else’s.

3) When times are tough, a group of people or a family can either come together, be strong, and make something positive out of it OR splinter and start picking each other off one by one.

Is that what we want for this Staples community? I don’t think so. It is not what I love about this school. When I speak in public I talk about your intelligence, willingness to work hard to become educated, your dedication to sport, theater, academics, and your concern for others. That is where we should be at this time. Let’s come together this Thanksgiving week and give thanks for what we have. Let’s enjoy the final two performances of West Side Story and let’s beat Greenwich at our Thanksgiving game winning the FCIAC Championship, and don’t forget we have Girls semi-final soccer game on Saturday in West Haven.

You’ve heard me say to you in the auditorium many times that I love you and love this school. Let’s pull together and continue to be the outstanding Staples family that we are.