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School trouble is now court's
Adult is charged in tiff over rules
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Published: September 23, 2009
NORTH WILKESBORO - The husband of the principal at North Wilkes High School was served Monday with a warrant charging him with simple assault in connection with a confrontation on school grounds, according to court records.
The complaint, filed by Gray Elledge, the vice president of the school's athletics boosters club, said that Tom Johnson committed assault by "holding the victim's hand and squeezing, while stating, ‘I'll do anything to protect my family.'"
The alleged incident came amidst a continuing conflict among some students, athletics boosters and new principal Helen Johnson.
Fourteen students were suspended for five days after they gathered on the football field on Sept. 14 to protest new school rules that they consider too strict. Administrators said the protest happened when students were supposed to be in class. Supporters of the students said they did it between classes.
Last Friday, dozens of signs were posted along roads near the school. They included messages calling for the firing of the principal and superintendent and election of a new school board.
Elledge, who has a child at the school, said he has clashed with Ellen Johnson over athletics issues since before the school year started, when she restricted access to the gym. He said he also disagrees with her new rules about such things as appearance or eating in the hall. He said he disagrees with suspension of privileges such as watching TV during lunch in the cafeteria and the discontinuation of the senior bell that lets seniors leave two minutes early at the end of the day.
But he said he didn't have anything to do with posting the signs or with the student protest.
Reached at home by telephone, Tom Johnson hung up. Helen Johnson could not be reached at the school.
Superintendent Steve Laws said the rules are the same as at the county's other high schools.
"Any change in leadership often involves some adjustment on the part of everybody," Laws said. "All but a very, very few have adjusted and things are going well for the community and school to excel."
Elledge said yesterday that the problems at North Wilkes High may sound minor to outsiders, but that they're important at a school that had been rebuilding momentum and community support before this year's unrest.
"What you hear in the community is everybody saying this is going to get ugly," he said. "At the rate of escalation, something has to be done to get this under control. It's not worth anybody getting hurt over."
Elledge said he filed the complaint over the weekend after Tom Johnson approached him on the sidelines during Friday night's football game. He said that Johnson reached across, grabbed his hand and started squeezing it as he asked if he was a family man.
"He says, ‘I'm a family man, too,'" Elledge said. "He says, ‘A family man takes care of his family.' He said, ‘I'd do anything to protect my family, you know what I mean?'
"I jerked my hand away and turned and faced him and said, ‘Is that a threat?' He said, ‘Oh no.'"
Elledge said he filed charges because he felt like the incident was meant to stop him from raising questions.
"I've never had personal disagreements with him or his wife," he said. "All my issues were school or athletic issues. He crossed a line."
mmitchell@wsjournal.com
336-667-5691
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