CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Capital High School principal Clinton Giles resigned Monday amid allegations he delayed in reporting a sexual assault on campus.
The Kanawha County Board of Education, during an executive session at a special meeting, voted to accept the resignation.
Giles was charged last week with a misdemeanor after Kanawha County prosecutors said he delayed the reporting of a sexual assault that happened at the school Jan. 26.
Prosecutors said the alleged assault was reported to a school counselor by a 15-year-old girl that day and the counselor told Giles. The principal waited until the next day, Jan. 27, to report the allegation, and within a few hours police arrested a 17-year-old student who was charged with second-degree sexual assault.
Kanawha County school board member Pete Thaw said Giles was right to step down.
“We are to present them (students) with a safe place to learn and Capital High School was becoming unsafe under Mr. Giles if he was not going to immediately report things like happened up there,” Thaw said.
Kanawha County prosecutor Chuck Miller said last week Giles was legally bound to report a violent crime immediately to authorities. Miller said the principal asked other administrators to hold off until he could review a surveillance tape of the stairwell in which the incident occurred. Giles allegedly told a vice principal the next day to delay reporting the incident until he checked with the school board office.
Giles had submitted his resignation paperwork to the school board office Thursday.
Thaw claimed Giles has been a polarizing figure for the many years at Capital: “I get a lot of phone calls and I’d say about a third of my calls are about Capital High School.”
Giles’ attorney, Jame Cagle, filed a motion last Friday seeking a speedy trial in the case. Kanawha County Circuit Judge Carrie Webster is scheduled to arraign Giles on the misdemeanor charge Feb. 17 at 11 a.m.
Thaw said an interim principal would remain at Capital until the position is advertised this spring.