Where'd They Go? Three Sudden Departures Leave Tongues Wagging

In the last several weeks, there have apparently been three sudden changes in employment status among town and school employees. First, there was a reported departure of an educator, seemingly related to explicit images found on a phone. No other information was made public.

Then, Sunday evening, the town acknowledged through a memo from the Senior Center Deputy Director, that the Director for the past two years, Franklin-native Danielle Hopkins, was no longer working at the Senior Center. Interim Director Sarah Amaral, noted, "I want to apologize if you have had unanswered questions or heard any rumors before today. My hope was always to keep you abreast of urgent news, but in this circumstance, nothing was finalized until late last week. Due to that, myself and the staff couldn't share much information regarding a personnel matter."  As one senior center habitué stated to the Observer, 'something fishy is going on.'

Monday, yet another departure reportedly occurred, this time at the high school involving principal Joshua Hanna. Again, a request to the superintendent for confirmation, comment, or any information has gone unanswered. But a sharp-eyed reader did find a news item in a Westboro newspaper that may be relevant. It reported that on Saturday, April 6. at 8:28 p.m. , Joshua F. Hanna, 47, of 122 Old Westboro Rd., North Grafton, was arrested for marked lanes violation, OUI-liquor, negligent operation of motor vehicle..

An examination of the police logs of the Westboro Police Department confirmed that information.

Separately, an X/Twitter account, @mrhanna_fhs has been removed.

In all these matters, of course, there are rightly policies in place to reasonably protect employees and not overshare information. On the other hand, providing no information merely invites the creation of rumors and, alas, misinformation.