Post by Bornthrilla on Apr 13, 2009 10:29:07 GMT -5
Northern e-mails under scrutiny
Monday, April 13
( updated 5:57 am)
By Robert Bell
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO — The investigation into Northern Guilford High’s athletic program has uncovered e-mails that indicate school officials may have encouraged students outside Northern’s district to play there, sources familiar with the investigation said Sunday.
Sources said those correspondences, sifted from more than 6,000 e-mails by investigators, could amount to recruiting, a violation of Guilford County Schools and N.C. High School Athletic Association rules. Those sources asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
School system officials began poring over the e-mails last week after the News & Record and a local television station requested them. Electronic correspondence sent or received from a Guilford County Schools account are public documents.
Jill Wilson, the school board’s attorney, said she is still reviewing about 3,000 unread e-mails. She declined to discuss the content of e-mails pertinent to the investigation.
She said the school system could release the e-mails next week. Any e-mails released will likely be heavily redacted because of privacy and personnel concerns, she said.
Sources said last week investigators are focusing on Northern’s football, baseball and boys basketball programs. This year’s teams for those sports include several students who transferred to the school within the past year. In addition to the recruiting allegations, sources said investigators are examining whether some students are academically eligible to compete.
On Sunday, Northern baseball coach Johnny Smith denied improperly contacting students or their families.
“I have never called or talked to a kid until after they were here,” he said.
He said he was unaware of anyone associated with the school violating the state athletic association’s recruiting policy.
Smith, a nonteaching employee of the school system, also said he knew nothing about the investigation. He said he didn’t learn about it until reading Saturday’s News & Record. He said he has yet to discuss the investigation with anyone from the school system or Northern.
“I spend six hours a day working on that (baseball) field and almost never go into the school, so I have no idea what’s going on,” he said.
Three Northern employees — principal Joe Yeager, athletics director Derrell Force and head custodian Louis Lawson — resigned last week in the midst of an investigation by school system officials into student eligibility and other unspecified issues at the school, which opened in 2007.
Smith said all of Northern’s baseball players live within the school’s boundaries.
Reached at Pawleys Island, S.C., where his family is vacationing, Northern basketball coach Stan Kowalewski said he was confident his team, which won the 3-A state championship last month, would be cleared of any wrongdoing.
Kowalewski said he and his attorney, David Brown, contacted Wilson and other school system officials Friday afternoon. Brown also is representing Lawson.
“I was told I had done nothing wrong and that our program and staff had done nothing wrong,” Kowalewski said.
Read more:
www.news-record.com/content/2009/04/13/article/northern_e_mails_under_scrutiny
Monday, April 13
( updated 5:57 am)
By Robert Bell
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO — The investigation into Northern Guilford High’s athletic program has uncovered e-mails that indicate school officials may have encouraged students outside Northern’s district to play there, sources familiar with the investigation said Sunday.
Sources said those correspondences, sifted from more than 6,000 e-mails by investigators, could amount to recruiting, a violation of Guilford County Schools and N.C. High School Athletic Association rules. Those sources asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
School system officials began poring over the e-mails last week after the News & Record and a local television station requested them. Electronic correspondence sent or received from a Guilford County Schools account are public documents.
Jill Wilson, the school board’s attorney, said she is still reviewing about 3,000 unread e-mails. She declined to discuss the content of e-mails pertinent to the investigation.
She said the school system could release the e-mails next week. Any e-mails released will likely be heavily redacted because of privacy and personnel concerns, she said.
Sources said last week investigators are focusing on Northern’s football, baseball and boys basketball programs. This year’s teams for those sports include several students who transferred to the school within the past year. In addition to the recruiting allegations, sources said investigators are examining whether some students are academically eligible to compete.
On Sunday, Northern baseball coach Johnny Smith denied improperly contacting students or their families.
“I have never called or talked to a kid until after they were here,” he said.
He said he was unaware of anyone associated with the school violating the state athletic association’s recruiting policy.
Smith, a nonteaching employee of the school system, also said he knew nothing about the investigation. He said he didn’t learn about it until reading Saturday’s News & Record. He said he has yet to discuss the investigation with anyone from the school system or Northern.
“I spend six hours a day working on that (baseball) field and almost never go into the school, so I have no idea what’s going on,” he said.
Three Northern employees — principal Joe Yeager, athletics director Derrell Force and head custodian Louis Lawson — resigned last week in the midst of an investigation by school system officials into student eligibility and other unspecified issues at the school, which opened in 2007.
Smith said all of Northern’s baseball players live within the school’s boundaries.
Reached at Pawleys Island, S.C., where his family is vacationing, Northern basketball coach Stan Kowalewski said he was confident his team, which won the 3-A state championship last month, would be cleared of any wrongdoing.
Kowalewski said he and his attorney, David Brown, contacted Wilson and other school system officials Friday afternoon. Brown also is representing Lawson.
“I was told I had done nothing wrong and that our program and staff had done nothing wrong,” Kowalewski said.
Read more:
www.news-record.com/content/2009/04/13/article/northern_e_mails_under_scrutiny