Marketing and Communications

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010 - Elementary school principals met today with the Forsyth County Sheriffs Office and the police departments of Winston-Salem and Kernersville to continue discussions about reporting criminal acts that began Tuesday with middle school principals.
 
Discussion centered on which offenses would be immediately reported to officers and which would be included in daily logs that will be emailed to officers, the principals assistant superintendent and the school attorney.
 
The goal of reporting is to keep students safe. Police and sheriffs deputies emphasized that reports do not equal investigations or criminal charges. Their goal is to make sure schools and students are safe, not to punish children for the typical mistakes of childhood.

Principals will immediately notify police officers or sheriffs deputies if they know of allegations of misconduct by employees or offenses required to be reported by state law or State Board of Education policy. The officer or deputy will either start an investigation or direct the principal to handle the matter according to the school systems policies.

Other possible criminal offenses will be entered in a daily log and sent to law enforcement, an assistant superintendent and the school attorney. Principals will continue to handle these incidents according to school policies, and law enforcement will review these logs and determine if they need to follow up on any incidents.

Meetings will continue Tuesday when high school principals meet with law enforcement.