Amid the hoopla and hustle of V.I. Carnival this week, news of the arrest of a children's activities supervisor at a St. Thomas resort on charges of raping a 9-year-old girl got secondary coverage in the local news media.
The accused, also a suspect in another case said to involve a 10-year-old girl, was charged with aggravated rape of the 9-year-old, and according to a Justice Department release, local authorities are also contacting families of other children placed under the defendant's care at the resort.
Keeping in mind that the person accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, the charges are deeply disturbing.
But even more disturbing are the responses of the criminal justice system, government tourism and public relations officials and local and corporate resort authorities.
The Justice Department release describing the arrest and efforts to contact other families who had stayed at the resort stated: "Families residing in the Virgin Islands need not be concerned."
Amy Atkinson, V.I. account supervisor for the territory's mainland public relations agency, Martin Public Relations, was quoted as saying, "Back in the states, unfortunately, you hear about these things in daycare frequently. The whole destination isn't going to be taking the fall for one person." Further, she was quoted, the day after news of the arrest came out, "I have not heard any negative reports from the stateside media. . . St. Thomas is known as being a family-friendly island."
Tourism Commissioner-designate Rafael Jackson was quoted as saying the quick investigation and arrest "speaks well of the concern we have for this kind of occurrence."
Management at the resort in question, the Wyndham Sugar Bay Beach Club, has referred all media questions to management at the Dallas, Tex., corporate headquarters of the Wyndham chain, which manages the resort for private owners. A Wyndham spokesman has said only that it will not comment, "other than to say that we are cooperating with the investigation."
It should be noted that none of these comments consisted of shooting from the hip. They all came from professionals accustomed to communicating with the public and the news media who had time to gather their thoughts before they opened their mouths or typed or approved their releases.
We have a problem here that is bigger than the rape of a child by a person entrusted with the care of children.
Families in the Virgin Islands need, indeed, be concerned. If not for their own children, who by implication would not have come in contact with the accused, then for the children of our paying guests, for two reasons: First, they are human beings, too. Second, they are the last hope this territory has of finding its way out of the mire of fiscal irresponsibility and non-accountability that is at long last about to throw government workers out of work.
The fact that children are raped in daycare situations on the mainland "frequently" in no way justifies or minimizes the alleged rape of a single child by a single caregiver in the Virgin Islands. And, as a matter of fact, yes, "the whole destination" may well "take the fall" for this one alleged incident — regardless of how the criminal justice system may ultimately resolve the matter. It only takes one case, no matter how aberrational, to change the "family-friendly" image of a small island.
Jackson's mistake was one of omission. What he was quoted as saying was appropriate, but he could have — and should have — said a lot more, addressing not the facts but the feelings of the hospitality industry and the community he represents to our visitors and potential visitors.
The corporate silence of the resort and the hotel chain are doubtless the result of the advice of high-priced legal counsel — lawyers who don't want their clients saying anything to the media that could conceivably be used against them in court. Better they should listen to their public relations experts about the public perceptions that are promoted when legitimate and deeply felt concerns are met with a wall of silence that sounds a lot like indifference.
In all of these cases, those commenting could take some cues from the classic textbook case of responsible "crisis public relations." It's all about how Johnson & Johnson responded publicly after containers of its product Tylenol, which accounted for 37 percent of the over-the- counter pain-killer market nationwide, were found to be the source of poison that killed seven people in the Chicago area in 1982.
Essentially, the company, under the guidance of its public relations agency, Burson- Marsteller, did three things, in order:
– It said, in essence, "This is terrible."
– It said, in essence, "We're sorry it happened."
– It said, in ongoing detail, "Here's what we are doing to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Note that the company did not say that it was in any way at fault. But it acknowledged that a problem existed and that it was committed to doing something about it. First, however, it let the public know in no uncertain terms that it cared. What next was needed was "immediate action to protect the consumer," Johnson & Johnson's vice president for public relations at the time said later, "and there wasn't the slightest hesitation about being completely open with the news media."
The company quickly recalled two batches of the pain-killer and later withdrew it completely across the nation. Public opinion polling kept the corporate executives up to date on how people felt about its efforts. Pulling the product off the shelves cost $100 million, but the company was seen as acting responsibly. Well-planned sales and media outreach efforts preceded the eventual redistribution of Tylenol — which immediately reclaimed a 24 percent share of the market and eventually became again the nation's best-selling brand.
The territory has been losing overnight visitor volume since 1988. These years have seen the arrival of Hurricanes Hugo and Marilyn and the departure of Pan American, Eastern and Midway airlines, which tend to get the blame. But they have also seen intermittent and isolated crimes against tourists — including murders, permanent injuries and rapes — that have been met by authorities and public relations people with the moral dismissal that "crime occurs everywhere" and the naive assumption that "it won't make any difference."
Of course other places have the same problems. But the Virgin Islands has largely made its living for four decades by encouraging people to leave those places to get away from those problems. Our crime concerns should be not for damage control but for the pain of the victims and for what can and must be done to protect others. Tourists vote with their feet — by vacationing where they choose. But by the time those ballots are cast, it's too late for the losers to do anything but weep.
Editor's note: Jean Etsinger is a Source editor.
For news coverage of the charges filed against the resort employee, click here to go to the main page of St. Thomas Source.
