Editorial - July 2002

The saga continues at North Gaston

July 8, 2002 - The saga continues in the North Gaston High School grade tampering scandal. Now we hear that North Gaston’s former principal, forced out of his job in December after the scandal surfaced, has been drawing a salary any way. The school system reportedly put the principal on leave for a year after officials found “leadership concerns” when it was determined that a football player continued to play though he should have been found ineligible because of his grades. The grade-changing incident led to court battles over whether North Gaston should forfeit six games for using the ineligible player. The North Carolina Athletic Association voided the wins, placing East Lincoln High in the Class 3-A state playoffs.

  The saga should have ended there, but parents of some North Gaston players decided to appeal the case and actually convinced a Gaston County judge to rule that the record should stand. That ruling was blatantly wrong, but Lincoln County School Board officials had to press the athletic association to appeal, which it finally did. The state Court of Appeals overturned the Gaston judge’s decision and upheld the original finding by the association.

Now we hear that the principal is on “leave” and is still drawing his salary, which is set at approximately $80,000.

School officials have not elaborated on this issue, other than to say the principal will return to work after his “leave” expires in December.

We are confused. If the school administration imposed a disciplinary leave on the principal, why should he be drawing a salary? Why would they pay anyone who is not working?

We don’t have the answers but we do know that it’s taking Gaston County school officials a long time to show responsibility in this incident.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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