PHILLIP SHELTONResigns from post

Warren Elementary School Principal Phillip Shelton resigned Friday, two weeks after being suspended with pay pending the outcome of an investigation into reports that he inappropriately touched a 10-year-old female student at the school on March 9.

Shelton, who allegedly smacked the girl on the buttocks, was removed from the school two days later when Warren County Superintendent Tim Murley learned of the incident.

Shelton, 50, has been principal at the school since Feb. 3, 2003. He came to Warren County from the Pulaski County school system, where he had been employed for 18 years as a music teacher and band director.

“This has been a very trying situation on everyone, the school, the staff and the district,” Murley said in a statement issued late Friday afternoon. “But in the end I think a satisfactory result has been reached.”

Shelton’s suspension ended Friday and he had been called to Murley’s office when he tendered his resignation, effective June 30. Shelton requested to be placed on medical leave until that date and will not be returning to the school at all, according to county schools spokeswoman Joanie Baker Hendricks.

Murley said that he had called Shelton into his office Friday to inform him that, “I did not have a place for him next year and he would not be returning.”

Shelton could not be reached for comment Friday.

The girl’s father had filed a complaint with the Bowling Green Police Department and the matter is being investigated as harassment, which is a misdemeanor, said Officer Barry Pruitt, BGPD spokesman. There was no word Friday as to the outcome of that investigation or any charges that may result.

The girl told police that the principal smacked her as she was bent over a desk playing with other students and he said: “I just couldn’t resist it.”

The girl told Shelton not to touch her “like that” again. Shelton asked if he had embarrassed her, walked her into the hallway and hugged her, telling her, “You know you are my favorite one,” according to the police report.

A classroom teacher witnessed the incident and made an anonymous call to the Board of Education office to report it the next day. The girl also told her parents about the incident after speaking with her teacher.

Murley said that each year school administrators receive instructions about sexual harassment and are responsible for speaking with the teaching staff about that. All school employees receive an employee handbook that explicitly deals with rules regarding harassment, he added.

Damon Tabor, the former principal of Rockfield Elementary School, has been named interim principal at Warren Elementary to replace Shelton.

Tabor is retired from the district but recently had been working part time as a physical education instructor at Warren Elementary. He came to Rockfield as principal in 1999 and has been an educator for more than 30 years.

The Warren County Site-Based Decision Making Council will immediately begin a search for Shelton’s permanent replacement, Hendricks said.