Superintendent Denies Allegations
By Encarnacion Pyle
The Columbus Dispatch
March 1, 2008
http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/03/01/resign.ART_ART_03-01-08_A1_KH9GMOS.html?sid=101
Worthington Christian Schools Superintendent Bill Williams resigned Thursday night in a tumultuous meeting with parents and teachers, five months after the first of several allegations of wrongdoing at the school surfaced.
Officials with Worthington Christian and Grace Brethren Church, which is affiliated with the private school, reviewed the findings of two independent investigations at the meeting.
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| Bill Williams |
The school, which has several campus locations, called for the investigations in November amid allegations of inappropriate conduct toward students and harassment of staff members by Williams and two former teachers, Dwayne Smith and Jason Crary.
Smith, a former science teacher and soccer coach who admitted he had fondled a middle-school girl in 1996, also was featured in a Dispatch series, "The ABCs of Betrayal," in October.
Williams, 52, denied the allegations, saying they had been investigated four times before by four review bodies -- and each time, he had been exonerated.
"I think I could stay and flourish, but to me the expedient and honorable thing to do was to resign," Williams said last night. "The report doesn't reflect the 21 years that I have been at the school."
Despite the troubles, he said, Worthington Christian's enrollment has grown this school year.
Williams has worked for Worthington Christian since 1987 and has been its superintendent for four years.
Assistant Superintendent Troy McIntosh said yesterday: "The last four months have been extremely difficult for students, parents, staff and faculty. They're just difficult, weighty things we've been dealing with."
The two reviews were by the Columbus law firm of Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter and by Kaye Manson Jeter, a lawyer and dean at Central State University in Wilberforce. Among the allegations reviewed:
• A former Worthington Christian employee said Williams sexually harassed her in May 2005 when he patted her head, played with her hair and rubbed her arm in a meeting.
The report found no wrongdoing.
•A former student said that Williams got too close to her during a tour of his home in 1992, after she had graduated from school and was married.
The report found Williams had an inappropriate emotional attachment to the girl before she graduated and never should have invited her to his home, but it said he never endangered her or any student.
• Investigators also confirmed that Smith had "illegal physical contact with a student" but said the school system, which has 1,215 children in preschool through 12{+t}{+h} grade, never attempted to cover it up.
In 1996, Smith admitted fondling a middle-school girl. He resigned, attended Christian counseling and was forgiven by the school and Grace Brethren. He was later rehired by the school but resigned again in October after being featured in the newspaper article. He has never been charged with a crime.
• Investigators also found that the school had no way of knowing that Crary had engaged in sexual conduct with a 16-year-old student while employed as a teacher in Milwaukee. Three years after hiring him, Worthington Christian officials heard Crary had been involved in something inappropriate with a former student, but they didn't have enough information to fire him, the report found.
Crary recently pleaded guilty in Wisconsin to four felony counts of sexual assault. He's free on bail until his sentencing April 3.
The report recommends that Worthington Christian beef up its background checks of potential employees, as well as its abuse and harassment policies.
The school and Grace Brethren Church also are considering several other steps, including creating a school governing board of church elders that would have more oversight, said Daniel R. Swetnam, the school's attorney. "We have a great school, students and parents," he said.
But Tim Ball, whose son graduated from Worthington Christian High School last year, says he'll continue to urge other parents to pull out their children. "Bill Williams was completely aware our kids were in danger for 10 years from multiple molesters, and to me that would have been enough to fire him if he hadn't resigned," Ball said.
Contact: epyle@dispatch.com
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