Schools
Ex-Stamford HS Principal Fired
The school board voted to terminate the administrator for failing to report a teacher was having an affair with a student.
By a vote of 8-0, with one abstention on Monday night, the Board of Education has fired former Stamford High School Principal Donna Valentine because she failed to report to authorities suspicions that a teacher was having an affair with a student.
The vote came during Valentine’s first appearance before the school board since her October 2014 arrest and suspension as chief administrator of the school where former English teacher Danielle Watkins carried on an affair with a student and supplied him and a friend with marijuana, according to The Advocate. Before making its decision, the school board considered an investigative report compiled by an independent hearing officer.
Watkins is serving a five-year prison sentence following her guilty plea to sexual assault and sale of marijuana charges in February 2015 in connection with the liaison she had with the student.
Valentine and former assistant principal Roth Nordin were arrested in October 2014, accused of failing to report to authorities, including Stamford Police, information that Watkins was having the affair with a then 17-year-old student.
Valentine and Nordin applied for the special form of probation for first-time offenders Oct. 22. At the end of the school year in June 2014, the student reported to police that the relationship that began in September 2013. The student told authorities that Watkins threatened to fail him, thus preventing his graduation if he severed the relationship that included numerous off-campus sexual trysts and the smoking of marijuana.
Related stories:
- Jail Time for Ex-Stamford HS Teacher in Student Sex Case
- City Opens Investigation into Stamford High School Teacher Sex Scandal
- Stamford HS Administrators Seek Special Probation Program
- Stamford HS Administrators Plead Not Guilty
- Stamford Teacher Is Accused of Sexual Assault of Student
- Prosecutors May Seek Plea Deal in Stamford HS Teacher Sex Assault Case
- Stamford High Administrators Receive Probation
- Stamford Teacher’s Plea Deal Offer Includes Jail Time
Valentine could appeal the board’s decision in court.
The Advocate story can be found here.
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