NC candidate no longer suspended as assistant principal, now taking vacation time
A state Senate candidate is no longer suspended from his job at a public middle school, according to Wake County public schools.
Scott Lassiter, an assistant principal at Connections Academy, was suspended with pay on Sept. 5.
But his status has changed from “suspended with pay” to “active,” Wake schools spokeswoman Lisa Luten told The News & Observer on Monday.
Asked whether this means he could go back to his job, Luten repeated that his status is active.
Lassiter said via text that his active status means he is “back to work.” He said: “I am an active assistant principal employed by the WCPSS.” Asked if he was currently back on the job, Lassiter said he was taking “some vacation time.”
Luten also declined to say when Lassiter would be back on the job, saying personnel and student information is confidential under state law.
Lassiter, a Republican vice chair of the Wake soil and water conservation district and former Apex town council member, is running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Lisa Grafstein to represent Senate District 13.
Asked for comment on the reinstatement, Lassiter said via text he would be committed as a state senator to “taking proactive steps to ensure the safety of our students and staff. Every school should have a highly trained School Resource Officer, non-invasive weapons detection systems, and controlled entry points to keep potential threats out.”
On Thursday, The N&O asked Luten whether Connections Academy — which is classified as an alternative learning program, or a school which serves children at risk of truancy, academic failure and more — had any school resource officers. Luten has not yet replied.
“Educators should be empowered to teach and order should be the norm. I am ready to collaborate with anyone necessary to make this a reality. I also urge all members of our community to have important conversations with young people about the dangers of violence and the importance of positive choices,” Lassiter said.
Lassiter’s version
Lassiter’s attorney Alicia Jurney last week recounted what happened to cause the suspension. Luten has pushed back against that version of events.
According to Jurney, Lassiter helped a professor take a resisting student out of the school on May 22 after this student “physically attacked” another student. The student fell twice — once while being restrained by the teacher and again while being put outside by Lassiter and the teacher — according to Jurney.
After this incident, the student’s brother showed up at the school. He “attempted to physically attack” Lassiter but police intervened, Jurney said. Wake County Superior Court records show the student’s brother is now facing criminal charges.
Documents in that case show that on May 22, a warrant for the brother’s arrest was issued. Offenses listed under that warrant are for a sex offender unlawfully being on premises with children, such as a school, and for resisting a public officer. Notes in court records say the brother is a registered sex offender who went to Connections Academy.
In September, in connection with the pending criminal charges against the adult, his defense attorney served Lassiter a subpoena for video footage of the incident, Jurney said.
Lassiter provided the subpoena to the principal, and after receiving it, the school district put him on administrative leave with pay and opened an investigation, she said.
Asked on Monday if his return to active status meant the school’s investigation that his attorney cited is now closed, Lassiter said he was “no longer subject to any investigation.”
Wake schools disputes version
Following Lassiter’s version of events being published on Thursday, Luten said Friday that “while district practice is not to disclose details of personnel matters for confidentiality reasons, we can share that we have reviewed the account Mr. Lassiter’s attorney submitted, and it is not consistent in a number of ways with our review. “
“Additionally, while I cannot give details about any specific case, I can tell you that the school system often receives subpoenas and court orders for records, and we do not suspend employees based solely upon a request for records,” she said.
She also said that attorneys had reviewed whether any exemptions applied to disclose information — such as what is known as the integrity exemption — or if any redactions could be made to provide records, but that “at this point, the statement that we’ve provided is where we are.” She would not provide details on what parts of what Lassiter had recounted were not valid.
