Former WCHS Principal, under investigation, plans to retire

Former Whitley County High School Principal Alan Sweet, who is currently the subject of a police investigation, won’t be with the school system for much longer and is no longer appealing his demotion as school principal.

Whitley County Superintendent Scott Paul said that Sweet, who is in his 27th year as an educator, sent notice last week via his attorney, Paul Croley, that he intends to retire at the end of the school year.

Paul accepted the resignation.

On Feb. 2, Paul placed Sweet on paid suspension pending an internal investigation by the school district. Five days later, school district officials contacted Kentucky State Police who began a criminal investigation.

So far officials have said little about what prompted the investigation but state police have said their investigation involves a juvenile.

On Friday, March 6, Sweet’s paid suspension ended, and on Monday, March 9, Sweet began sick leave for an undetermined period of time.

On Feb. 18, Paul informed Sweet that he had been demoted from principal at the high school to a teaching position.
School officials said that Sweet initially informed the district that he planned to appeal that suspension.

On March 23, the school district was notified that Sweet had withdrawn the appeal of his demotion by another of Sweet’s lawyers, Russell Alred, Paul said.

Croley has previously indicated that Sweet "denies any wrongdoing."

Open records ruling

Through an open records request in February, the News Journal learned that Sweet had one disciplinary action against him since he became high school principal in 2009.

School officials confirmed that in February 2013 he received a private reprimand but they declined to release a copy of the reprimand arguing it was exempt from public disclosure because it was a private reprimand opposed to a public reprimand.

"I am not at liberty to disclose the contents of the reprimand but I can tell you that it is in no way connected to the current issues being investigated relative to Mr. Sweet," Paul noted.

The News Journal unsuccessfully appealed the school district’s decision not to release the reprimand to the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office.

On appeal, the News Journal argued that "reprimands of public employees regarding job-related misconduct are most definitely subject to disclosure and have not generally been exempt from public inspection."

The newspaper also maintained that the Kentucky Revised Statute cited by the school district only provided for ‘private’ reprimands of teachers and not principals or other administrators, such as Sweet.

In the ruling issued by Assistant Attorney General Michelle D. Harrison on March 24, the office agreed that the public generally has a right to know when an individual, in whose hands the education and care of Kentucky’s children is entrusted, has been disciplined for misconduct but resolution to the appeal involved a limited exception to this general rule.

"This decision is dispositive as to application of KRS 161.790(10) and the accessibility of a ‘private reprimand’ given to a ‘teacher,’" Harrison wrote in the ruling.

"The question becomes whether KRS 161.790(10) applies to a school administrator, including a principal, a question which goes beyond our narrow scope of review in the context of a dispute arising under the Open Records Act. However, the courts have conclusively resolved this question and no credible argument can be made that Mr. Sweet’s private reprimand was not properly withheld assuming KRS 161.790(10) was properly invoked."

The ruling held that the superintendent was within his discretion to give Sweet a "private reprimand" as opposed to a "public reprimand," and that the "private reprimand" sanction wasn’t subject to public disclosure.