Fired NC principal faces criminal investigation into whether he hid sexual assault
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Franklin Co. DA probes if ex-principal failed to report student assault.
- Sheriff’s Office investigates incident on school activity bus involving team.
- DA seeks court order for school emails and internal investigation records.
The Franklin County District Attorney’s Office has launched a criminal investigation into whether former Franklinton High School Principal Russell Holloman failed to report the sexual assault of a student.
Holloman was removed as principal of Franklinton High in April following what the Franklin County school system said at the time was an internal investigation into an incident involving the baseball team. New court records show the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating whether Holloman failed to follow his legal duty to report an alleged sexual assault that occurred on a Franklin County school activity bus.
The District Attorney’s Office is requesting a judge require the school system to turn over all records of its internal investigation of the incident as well as Holloman’s emails from his former district account.
“There is reasonable suspicion to believe that a crime has been committed, and further that the records sought are likely to bear upon the investigation of that crime,” Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Jamie Lamancusa said in the July 21 court petition.
Boyd Sturges, the attorney for the school board, said in an interview Monday that the district will provide the requested records. District leaders have said they didn’t learn about the incident until being told by parents six weeks after it happened.
“We will cooperate obviously and follow all the rules,” Sturges told The News & Observer.
Holloman did not return voicemails and an email Monday from The N&O requesting comment. He had been Franklinton High’s principal since 2014 and was the district’s Principal of the Year in 2017.
The court petition was first reported by The Franklin Times.
DA: Principal ‘not truthful’ about reporting incident
Franklinton is about 27 miles north of Raleigh. The school’s baseball team was in Rocky Mount on March 4 for a game against Nash Central High School.
According to the petition and an affidavit from Franklin County Sheriff’s Detective Brian Jacobson:
- On March 4, a sexual assault occurred in Nash County on a Franklin County activity bus, involving members of Franklinton High School’s baseball team.
- On April 18, the incident was reported to Franklin County school district office staff by parents.
- On April 22, district leadership met with the parents who made the report and subsequently made an official notification of the incident to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
- Before the notification, the Sheriff’s Office had no knowledge of the incident and had received no reports of the incident.
- An internal Franklin County Schools investigation showed that the sexual assault had not been reported to law enforcement by Holloman or any staff of Franklinton High School.
“The internal investigation showed that Russell Holloman was not truthful about reporting the incident to law enforcement,” according to Lamancusa’s petition.
The petition and affidavit did not say how many students were involved in the assault. But the court records indicate the incident involved members of the baseball team who were all juveniles.
School board upholds Holloman’s firing
Under North Carolina law, principals are required to notify law enforcement of crimes that occur on school property. State law also requires mandatory reporting by adults of crimes against juveniles.
The district suspended Holloman on April 22. On May 7, Franklin County Superintendent Rhonda Schuhler recommended that Holloman be fired as principal.
Holloman appealed the termination to the school board. Sturges, the board attorney, said the board upheld the termination on July 21.
“It’s a personnel matter so we really can’t discuss it,” Sturges said of the criminal investigation. “We don’t want to interrupt any other agency’s work on it.”
