Private schools are both slow and notoriously reluctant to be transparent, which is exactly why the scandal engulfing Sydney’s Scots College is now out of control.

Three teenage students have been charged with aggravated sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl in a Bondi Junction laneway on 22 July.

A month passed before principal Ian Lambert emailed parents. In that silence, angry parents, alumni, and journalists wrote the story for him.

If you don’t set the narrative, it gets set for you

This is the oldest lesson in crisis communications, and it gets reinforced the hard way every time. The instinct to say nothing, to wait for legal advice, to let the police process run, is understandable. In an emotionally charged situation, it’s also, in reputational terms, catastrophic.

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Silence is not a narrative. It creates a vacuum filled by angry parents and alumni and by journalists with deadlines.

The author Peter Wilkinson

Lambert’s belated email to parents did several things........

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