The Shenendehowa schools' athletic director apologized Thursday after a tweet resulted in criticism from followers. The now deleted tweet showed an anonymous letter of concern going through the shredder. The wastebin below the shredder was named "the anonymous letter filing cabinet."
"I apologize for the way the tweet was interpreted. I do stand behind the fact we got to continue the dialogue of how people work together when they don't agree," Culnan said.
Since the post on Wednesday, there have been concerns and support from parents, students, and the community. Culnan says that tweet was misinterpreted, and was meant to send a bigger message saying bullying and threats would not be tolerated.
"My message was really about trying to convey the other extreme, that there are people in our community or outside of our community who are doing things of attacking coaches or kids," Culnan added.
The 15-year Shenendehowa administrator says the anonymous letter in the tweet was just one in a pile of nameless complaints he receives every school year. He says many of them are vile, use foul language, and rip apart coaches and teenage 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.
He tells Spectrum News the anonymous notes even show up at the coaches houses and in the classrooms of players. A small portion of them have reached a point where the IT department and the school resource officer has needed to step in. Because they're anonymous, he says it's hard to track, or know if it's serious.
"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.
A followup tweet sits in the original's spot after the backlash.
Culnann says he hopes this will start the change of a toxic culture happening outside of the Friday night lights. A conversation he hopes to continue as students begin to again fill the halls.
"Being here long enough, I need to engage our community, that they know this is a place where they can come in and have a conversation that doesn't sit well with them," Culnan said.