SBI to look into schools

The State Bureau of Investigation has agreed to look into allegations that employees with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools have violated state laws requiring timely reporting of potential criminal violations — including allegations of sexual misconduct, the Winston-Salem Journal has learned.

District Attorney Jim O'Neill also has been considering whether to file criminal charges that include obstruction of justice and failure to comply with the reporting law, said sources familiar with the investigation who requested anonymity because it is ongoing.

O'Neill said that the rules of ethics prohibit him from commenting on any possible investigations.

"I will say this much: the law is clear and simple," O'Neill said. "Failure to notify law enforcement of a student's complaint of a sexual assault made by a teacher, coach or administrator will be dealt with by my office.

"I believe the majority of teachers in our community do an outstanding job. It is a small minority that has ulterior motives. However, as far as I am concerned, even one predator walking around the halls in our school system is one too many."

A special session of the school board is scheduled for this evening in which the role of officials, including Drew Davis, the school system's attorney, likely will be discussed, sources said. Efforts to reach the SBI yesterday were unsuccessful.

The school system is cooperating with the district attorney's office and is planning meetings for all of its principals with sheriff's and police officials to review reporting policy, Superintendent Don Martin said in a statement.

The state law regarding the reporting of crimes in school systems, which was amended in 2009, as well as State Board of Education policy adopted earlier this year, requires law enforcement to be notified immediately of potential criminal acts on campus. That includes allegations of sexual abuse, drug and weapons offenses, and violent crime.

Obstruction of justice can be either a felony or a misdemeanor, and failure to comply with the reporting law is a misdemeanor.

The school board is expected to go into closed session to discuss the issues being raised in the local system. A call to Davis last week was not returned; school spokesman Theo Helm said that Martin's statement would speak for the system.

Martin declined to specifically comment about tonight's meeting, saying it was a personnel matter.

Law-enforcement officials said they cannot talk about specifics of any current investigations involving school officials, but they confirmed that discussions over reporting of potential criminal matters have taken place recently and will continue.

"We don't want to overreact and have blue lights and sirens responding to the schools for every incident when it's not necessary, but we do want reasonable compliance with the laws to report," Sheriff Bill Schatzman said. "The goal is not to punish anyone per se. It's to make sure the mistakes of the past do not reoccur."

Martin said the school administration will allow prosecutors to examine "several of our investigation files from the past. We will cooperate with the DA in every way possible — we have nothing to hide and welcome the opportunity to clear up any concerns."

'Gatekeeper' mentality

Tom Keith, the district attorney for Forsyth County from 1990 to 2009, said prosecutors for years have had difficulty getting information from school officials on incidents involving sexual misconduct.

Those cases include complaints lodged against Dan Piggott, a former principal at Carver and Atkins high schools who pleaded guilty in 2009 to two counts of assault on a female after two female former employees said he had fondled and groped them, a case involving a teacher at East Forsyth who videotaped himself having sex with students in 1998 and an investigation into allegations of misconduct lodged against a teacher at Lewisville Elementary School in 2006.

The Lewisville principal at the time was suspended with pay for a few months over his handling of those allegations before returning to work in January 2007.

"In the past, we learned that (school officials) have been less than forthcoming with us," Keith said.

He said school officials sometimes have a "gatekeeper" mentality. They conduct their own investigations and then decide whether and when to turn over information to police, deputies or prosecutors.

"They don't know how to interview (suspects, victims or witnesses)," Keith said. "They don't tape the interviews. They don't read people their rights and they don't separate witnesses from each other.

"They have to report all allegations, and those allegations demand professional investigations."

As the lead attorney for the school system since 2007, Davis would be at the center of all such investigations and would have a significant amount of input into how they're dealt with. Davis has been employed by the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools since October 2004.

School officials would not comment about whether Davis' performance would be among the items discussed tonight. Board members expect to open the meeting to hear grievances and then retire to a closed session, said Helm, the school system's spokesman.

Under North Carolina open-meetings law, public bodies are allowed to close meetings for several reasons, including personnel matters and legal discussions.

"For personnel matters, the board would have to come out (in open session) if they were to take any action," Helm said. "I don't know whether they'll take any action or not."

Seeking clarity

Keith said prosecutors have learned from past investigations that complaints lodged against school employees are filed under the name of the person making the allegation rather than the employee.

In effect, that means investigators would have to know the names of every single person who might have filed a complaint in order to find potential witnesses and victims in specific cases.

"There was no way to know if somebody had a history," Keith said.

In his statement, Martin wrote, "if there are filing practices that need to be addressed, then we will implement suggested changes as soon as practical."

Chief Scott Cunningham of the Winston-Salem Police Department said he looks forward to clarity on the issue of what schools report.

"We do have concerns about past reporting practices and interpretations of guidelines," Cunningham wrote in an e-mail. "At this time, we have been and will continue to conduct meetings that we believe will clarify the issues and ensure that law enforcement is fully aware of everything that occurs on school property so that our children can be as safe as possible."

Schatzman said his interest, and that of other law-enforcement authorities, lies primarily in correcting a reporting system he believes to be flawed.

"We want to make more clear to school administrators and principals what their obligations are to report under the law," Schatzman said. "Some are unclear what they may or may not have to report. That's why we're having meetings with managers and principals, to make it absolutely clear what the law requires them to do."

ssexton@wsjournal.com
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