It's hard to hide a dead body on the tracks, so somebody knew this--officials, family, next of kin.
Or the fact that the principal vanished from school. Parents were told she died--and it was none of the parents' business as to how she died. Suicide has a stigma associated with it, let the woman have her dignity.
Some in the school would have learned of the allegations of cheating. It may even have been rumored. That would have stayed "rumor" and even parents wouldn't have reported it. Nobody wants to be told that a school's standardized test results are bogus. And there are for sure people who would defend the school on all kinds of grounds.
First, you need to determine if there was cheating. That's a pointless thing to announce by itself, so you don't.
Second, you need to determine what to do about the screwed up test scores and announce the solution. That was June 22. It was probably reported.
Third, you work on assigning responsibility, prior to working out a mechanism to fix the problem.
"On Friday, the DOE blamed the dead principal."
And there you have the reason for the story now. The rest is background.
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