Students at Holy Redeemer High School in Wilkes-Barre who spoke with Newswatch 16 said their school is a good school, a safe school, but they worry about what the Joseph Ostrowski arrest will do to Holy Redeemer's image.
Students filed in to the high school along South Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre. It is the first full day of school since the arrest of their head football coach.
According to the Catholic Diocese of Scranton, head football coach Joseph Otrowski was arrested Monday by the FBI and accused of "the attempted production of child pornography."
Patrick Dockeray is finishing up his senior year at Holy Redeemer. He feels the big problem is what Ostrowski's arrest does to Holy Redeemer's image.
"I thought the actions of one man can't reflect on an entire school community. I still think Holy Redeemer is a safe environment for students," Dockeray said.
John Leshinski agrees with that. He was at Holy Redeemer Tuesday morning to drop off his granddaughter.
He said the Ostrowski arrest shows problems can happen anywhere.
"Nobody is safe as far as I'm concerned. If you did something like this, I'm not for this at all, don't get me wrong, but if you're going to do something like this, it's going to come out in the wash," Leshinski said.
An assistant principal said there will be no comment on the Ostrowski arrest coming from Holy Redeemer High School, but he did confirm Ostrowski was just the football coach. He did not teach any classes there.
The overwhelming reaction among the student body was surprise.
"I got a text from somebody, and it was, I saw it and it was wow. I couldn't even believe it," said junior Michael Mocion.
Joseph Ostrowski wasn't at Holy Redeemer long, just one year, and in that year, he didn't win a game.
Parents of football players received an e-mail saying there will be a meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the school library.