Some parents are unhappy that three teachers in Rowan-Salisbury Schools who were recently charged with sex-related crimes are still on the school system’s payroll.
But school officials say they must continue to pay teachers charged with crimes and can’t fire tenured teachers without documented reasons.
Bobbie Cape’s son is a student at West Rowan High School, where Angela Waddell was once a teacher and coach — until authorities charged her on June 5 with 21 felonies for having sex with a student. The Rowan County grand jury indicted the 28-year-old Waddell on the charges this week, meaning the jury found enough evidence to proceed with a trial.
“It bothers me deeply that Angela Waddell is suspended with pay during all the legal proceedings,” Cape wrote the Post.
“We as parents have entrusted the education of and general well-being of our children to this woman. Should she be allowed to remain on the payroll while being accused of being a pedophile?”
Mitzi Fuller’s daughter was in 29-year-old Jason Shafer’s fifth-grade class last year at Landis Elementary School. On May 23, Shafer was charged with third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. State detectives confiscated tapes, computer discs and books of photographs from his home, some of which they believe contain child pornography. Shafer has not been accused of any improprieties at the school.
Fuller still says she doesn’t like to hear that Shafer is still getting paid — even if he was a good teacher.
“It bothers me. Mr. Shafer was a very good teacher for my child. He brought my daughter a long way. But I’m not going to sit here and say he needs to be put back in the school system.”
Howard “Trey” Coffie III, a 33-year-old social studies teacher at Erwin Middle School, was charged on May 31 with taking indecent liberties with a student. Like Waddell and Shafer, he also is listed as “suspended with pay.”
Because these three teachers are 10-month employees of the school system, they will not receive pay again until August or September. Though their criminal cases won’t be settled by then given the pace of the courts, school administrators could opt not to renew their contracts if they were not tenured.
But all three of these teachers are tenured, meaning they have served more than three years of employment.
Don Sayers, a local attorney retained to represent Rowan-Salisbury Schools, could not be reached for comment. School-system spokeswoman Kathy Walters had this to say: “We do what our attorneys tell us to do. But not only that, it seems like a reasonable and logical course of action” to continue paying teachers charged with crimes.
“That’s standard procedure, to keep a person on the payroll,” added Kathy Wilhelm, a recruiter for Rowan-Salisbury Schools. “You don’t fire someone who’s accused. You have to wait until they’re guilty.”
Bill Kenerly, district attorney for Rowan County, said juvenile victims of sex crimes are more willing to come forward than in the past. That’s led to more criminal charges and more publicity about teachers and sexual abuse.
So far this year, several other teachers have been charged with sex-related crimes in Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Gaston and Forsyth counties.
“It’s not that we have more sex offenses,” Kenerly said. “It’s just that we have a greater interest in reporting them.”
Contact Brad Hodges at 704-797-4266 or bhodges@salisburypost.com
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