Highland principals back to work

By Randa Wagner –

High­land res­i­dents got their wish: Shawn Winkelfoos and Debra Knechtly are back to work.

Super­in­ten­dent Dr. Bill Dodds announced yes­ter­day morn­ing that, “With the return of our two ele­men­tary prin­ci­pals to the High­land Local School Dis­trict, we will be redis­trib­ut­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties within the dis­trict for the remain­der of the 2012–2013 school year.”

Dodds said Winkelfoos will return to the ele­men­tary school as the prin­ci­pal of the build­ing. He will be assisted by Amber Clay-Mowry and Pam Mosier-Arnold. Knechtly will work in the dis­trict office.

“We are look­ing for­ward to a return to school with a full staff that gives us the great­est oppor­tu­nity to help stu­dents in every area of their learn­ing,” Dodds con­cluded in his statement.

This change comes after the con­clu­sion of an inves­ti­ga­tion by the Mor­row County Sheriff’s Office after a reported inci­dent of pos­si­ble sex­ual mis­con­duct by a stu­dent that occurred Octo­ber 19. The inves­ti­ga­tion was over whether proper pro­to­col for report­ing child abuse or neglect was fol­lowed by the school staff.

Winkelfoos and Knetchly were placed on admin­is­tra­tive leave dur­ing the investigation.

After review­ing the infor­ma­tion from the sheriff’s office, Mor­row County Pros­e­cu­tor Charles How­land decided not to file charges against the staff mem­bers in question.

“Due to the con­fus­ing nature of the facts of this case, the County Pros­e­cu­tor will decline charges against (teacher Karen) Fowler, Mr. Winkelfoos and Ms. Knechtly. The law pre­sumes inno­cence until proof of guilt beyond a rea­son­able doubt is established.”

How­land said the inves­ti­ga­tion was con­ducted by the Sher­iffs Office ‘was com­plete and thor­ough’ and the High­land super­in­ten­dent ‘has assisted and fully coop­er­ated with the investigation.’

“The Prosecutor’s deci­sion in this mat­ter should not be con­strued as dis­ap­proval of the inves­ti­ga­tion by the Sheriff’s Office or of High­land Schools,” Howland stated. “Their work in this mat­ter was excel­lent. How­ever, each case must be decided on its own merit and the con­fus­ing nature of the facts that make up this case was the decid­ing fac­tor. Cer­tainly, the edu­ca­tors now under­stand that they are required to report regard­less of the source of abuse. I have every con­fi­dence that in the future they will com­ply with the let­ter of the law. Fur­ther, the edu­ca­tors may still face dis­ci­pline from their own board and also pos­si­ble action by the State School Board.”

How­land added that ‘fail­ure to report abuse sit­u­a­tions by the Mor­row County edu­ca­tion com­mu­nity has been an ongo­ing prob­lem.’ In effort to resolve this mat­ter, he con­tin­ued, his office will now for­ward a let­ter to each school facil­ity that will out­line the oblig­a­tions of edu­ca­tors to report abuse sit­u­a­tions. This let­ter will include a copy of Ohio Revised Code sec­tion 2151.421.

“The Mor­row County edu­ca­tion com­mu­nity should take notice and be mind­ful that fur­ther vio­la­tions of the duty to report statute will result in charges,” How­land con­cluded in his state­ment. “The County Pros­e­cu­tor will not accept excuses of “I didn’t know I had to do that” any longer. The pro­tec­tion of chil­dren is everyone’s busi­ness. Among the edu­ca­tion com­mu­nity, the pro­tec­tion of chil­dren must be the first priority.”

Posted by Randa Wagner on Nov 28 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.