Wiley Middle and Parkland High schools are at the center of an SBI investigation into whether the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system failed to promptly report allegations of possible teacher wrongdoings to law enforcement.
The school system suspended Jason Ford, who teaches English as a Second Language at Wiley, with pay yesterday as the Winston-Salem Police Department investigates an allegation, first made in May, that he took indecent liberties with students. No charges have been filed against him.
Authorities have not released details of the allegation, though a school-board member said yesterday that it had to do with an accusation of touching a student's leg.
Ford, a former Navy fighter pilot, has been at Wiley since 2007 and previously worked at Walkertown and Forest Park elementary schools.
In April, Steve Waddell, a computer-technology teacher at Parkland, was fired after being arrested on charges of taking indecent liberties with a student and misdemeanor sexual battery. The inquiry by the State Bureau of Investigation, however, is focusing on an earlier incident in 2006 in which Waddell was never charged. School officials have not released details of that incident.
Yesterday's developments came a day after the school board voted unanimously to suspend Drew Davis, the school system's lawyer, with pay, pending the results of the SBI investigation.
The allegations at both Wiley and Parkland were reported to school administrators, who immediately notified the school system's lead lawyer at the time, school officials said in a news release late yesterday.
Doug Punger was the lead lawyer when the 2006 allegations at Parkland were reported. He retired in December 2006. Davis held the position at the time of the allegations at Wiley Middle.
Davis has declined to comment, and Punger did not immediately return a call requesting comment.
Sean Gaillard, the principal at Wiley, had reported the allegations against Ford to Davis, and Davis told him that there would be an internal investigation, Gaillard's attorney, David Freedman, said yesterday.
Freedman said that principals are trained to take allegations involving teachers and other school employees directly to Davis, who would then investigate to determine whether law-enforcement officials needed to be contacted.
After the investigation at Wiley was completed, Davis told Gaillard that he didn't find any need for a criminal investigation into the allegations against Ford, and that Gaillard should do nothing further. No action was taken against Ford during the time that Davis investigated the allegations.
"Mr. Gaillard did exactly what he was supposed to do," Freedman said.
In late August, the school board hired the law firm of Bell Davis & Pitt to conduct an independent investigation into how Davis handled the cases.
At a special meeting Tuesday, Walter "Wrennie" Pitt and Alan Ruley presented the investigation's results in closed session, and the board voted unanimously to suspend Davis, who has worked for the school system since 2004 and makes $92,856 a year.
Yesterday, several school- board members expressed dissatisfaction with how school officials have handled the incidents. Board member Vic Johnson, who missed the Tuesday meeting, said he had been brought up to date about the incident at Wiley, and that it appears to him the school system violated state law by not reporting allegations.
"Whatever the law is, we need to uphold the law," Johnson said. "I don't see a gray area. Feeling some girl's leg -- what is gray about that?"
In light of complaints by law-enforcement officials, the school system is changing how it reports allegations of misconduct.
At a meeting Tuesday morning, principals learned that from now on, principals in high schools and middle schools that have school resource officers will report allegations directly to those officers. In elementary schools, principals will report, perhaps through e-mail, to a designated law-enforcement official.
School officials said they are working with the Forsyth County District Attorney's Office and law enforcement to improve protocols for reporting criminal allegations involving employees.
At the request of District Attorney Jim O'Neill, the SBI was called in to investigate whether the school system failed to promptly report allegations of misconduct.
mhewlett@wsjournal.com
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kunderwood@wsjournal.com
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