PRESS RELEASE

Dr. Brian Uplinger, Superintendent

I am issuing this press release in anticipation of the article being prepared to run in the
upcoming Saturday Edition of the Standard Speaker related to Career Center Vice Principal,
Michael Pozzessere. I wish to take this opportunity to respond to the points and concerns that
were presented by audience members during last evenings school Board Meeting during public
comment.

I have previously issued statements making it clear that there are absolutely no facts
supporting the allegations made by Ms. Wendall. Specifically, my charge as Superintendent is to
ensure that our children are protected and that our staff abides by District Policy at all times.
Despite some of the comments, I take this charge extremely seriously. Historically, in this and
in my previous school districts, I have never hesitated to make the tough decisions necessary to
discipline, discharge and report to the State, and to the authorities, educators and employees who
have violated the law and/or district policy. When facts present themselves that mandate these
types of actions I have acted and will continue to act without exception. I have never failed or
refused to act or turned a blind eye in situations like this based upon political pressure or close
relationships. The current situation involving Mr. Pozzessere is no exception. Again, as I have
stated in the past, when Ms. Wendall’s complaints were brought to our attention I acted
immediately and without hesitation. We interviewed Ms. Wendall and we took her complaint
seriously. We initiated an investigation, I contacted our school district Chief of Police and then
ultimately this matter was transferred to the State Police for further potential criminal
investigation. In accordance with school policy and state law, I also initiated a report to the
Pennsylvania Department of Education. Our internal investigation and the Pennsylvania State
Police Investigation both failed to reveal any facts to support Ms. Wendall’s claim that Mr.
Pozzessere acted in violation of school policy or that he committed any crime. Again, there are
absolutely no facts to support Ms. Wendall’s allegations that Mr. Pozzessere violated the law or
district policy.

That being said, I wish to specifically address a few statements that have been introduced
by the media that have led to public misconception and that require further clarification. The
first bit of information and statement cited by those who continue to accuse me of not doing my
job or turning a blind eye is the statement made by Chief Harry in a previous article wherein he
stated that he took no action in pursuing charges because the statute of limitations had expired.
For many they misinterpreted this statement to suggest that Chief Harry’s comments seemed to
indicate that although there was wrongdoing, his hands were tied because of the legality of the
expiration of the statute of limitations. While this seemingly has become public misconception,
it is not factually correct. I urge you to contact Chief Harry to confirm this. To be clear, Chief
Harry is not in possession of any evidence of any wrongdoing, nor is he in possession of any
evidence that would corroborate Ms. Wendall’s allegations. While Chief Harry may have been
stating a legal fact with regard to the expiration of the statute of limitations, he was not stating
nor was he even implying that there was any evidence to support a charge in the first place.
 The next point of public contention seems to be some of the text exchanges between Ms.
Wendall and Mr. Pozzessere. One of those exchanges was a message from Mr. Pozzessere to
Ms. Wendall saying that he “knew where all the hiding places were”. Again, it seems that many
wish to point to this statement as confirmation to Mr. Pozzessere’s wrongdoing and violation of
policy while Ms. Wendall was a student. They are inferring and assuming this text was sent to
Ms. Wendall while she was a student, but the truth is and the fact is that we have no evidence to
factually confirm that this text, or any other provocative texts were sent while Ms. Wendall was a
student. In fact, I specifically asked her to provide us with some way to verify and validate the
date that this message was sent and she was unable to provide that corroborating information.
To take it a step further, I have put out a blanket request to Ms. Wendall, the staff, and the public
as a whole to provide me with any additional information that may impact my investigation. To
date, again, I have received no additional facts or information that in anyway support, or
corroborate the allegations of Ms. Wendall. The Pennsylvania State Police investigation has also
concluded, and I have been advised that, after thoroughly interviewing both Ms. Wendall and
Mr. Pozzessere and after obtaining a complete record of their text exchanges from their phones
and social media, that they too have come to the same conclusion and have closed their
investigation. This is not because of who Mr. Pozzessere is, or who he knows, or who his family
is. It is simply as a result of the conclusion of multiple simultaneous thorough investigations.

In conclusion, however, I am going to once again reopen my investigation to anyone with

any additional information, including Ms. Wendall, to come forward. Resultingly, Mr.
Pozzessere will again be suspended pending the continued investigation. I hope and trust that
this clarifies some of the most significant public misconceptions about how this investigation
was handled and why I have made the decisions that I have made to this point in time.
Unfortunately, I recognize that even with this transparent clarification, there are going to be
those who continue to ignore the facts and mock and name call for the sole purpose of serving
their own agenda. An agenda intended to create misguided hate and community discord all with
the purpose of making themselves look like champions of the public when in reality they are a
Trojan Horse for misguided hatred and personal vendetta. I urge the reasonable and rational
public to focus on the facts and not the sensationalism of half-truths.