The athletic director at Shenendehowa (N.Y.) High School is catching heat after he posted a video to twitter of him shredding an anonymous letter of concern into a trash can labeled “the anonymous letter filing cabinet."
Christopher Culnan apologized for the tweet, but said the need for dialogue in the district is greater than ever
"I apologize for the way the tweet was interpreted," he said. "I do stand behind the fact we got to continue the dialogue of how people work together when they don't agree."
Culnan said his tweet was meant to send a message.
"My message was really about trying to convey the other extreme,” he told Spectrum News. “That there are people in our community or outside of our community who are doing things of attacking coaches or kids.”
The @ShenAthletics director apologizing after a controversial tweet caused a stir. He says his bigger message was misinterpreted. We sat down to talk about why he’s fed up with anonymous letters being vile towards coaches and students. FULL STORY: tn on @SPECNewsAlbany pic.twitter.com/S4797UYVvt
— Melissa Steininger (@melissasteinTV) August 8, 2019
Culnan said the school has received numerous anonymous letters, many that are vile, use obscenities and berate coaches and student-athletes.
"We won't appease everybody and we don't have enough uniforms for every kid who wants to play a sport at Shenendehowa. So, I know there will always be kids frustrated, but I'm not sure if the answer to that is what we've been seeing," Culnan said.
Culnan told Spectrum News the anonymous notes even show up at the coaches houses and in the classrooms of players.
"Thats a concern, that's a decision an individual is deciding to make; and I'm not going to try to determine what they're going to next," Culnan said.
After having been at Shenendehowa for 15 years, Culnan says he needs to engage the community, and he hopes people know that they can always come in and have a conversation with him about issue that they don’t agree with