GAINESVILLE - The head of the Gainesville school board says she feels school officials did their homework in hiring an employee with a previous drug arrest who has been busted on drug charges again.
Lee Highsmith says Assistant Superintendent Curtis Bibb was upfront about his past when he was interviewed - and his background was thoroughly checked.
"We did know about it," Highsmith said Friday afternoon. "We did send someone up there for a site visit to make sure what Mr. Bibb was telling us was true.
Bibb, who came to Gainesville from Charlotte, N.C. in 2002 was arrested on drug charges in South Carolina December 23; his previous arrest was in 1996, also in South Carolina.
How could the board mesh hiring someone with something like that in his or her past while promoting zero-tolerance for drugs on its campuses?
"It is true that we don't tolerate drugs in our schools, but this was something that was in his past," Highsmith said, "that he had taken steps to correct and had not been involved in since '96."
Highsmith said the attorneys for the school board and Bibb are still talking and she's not sure what he will do, while quickly adding, he can "tender his resignation or we can hold a tribunal and he can terminated." Reports surfaced shortly after Bibb's latest arrest was revealed Wednesday that his attorney had said a letter of resignation would be delivered to school officials next Tuesday. Highsmith said Friday she had not been told of any resignation plans, adding this is "still very much a legal matter" which she wants resolved "as quickly as possible."
Bibb has his first court appearance on the latest charge next Wednesday in Charleston, S.C., where he was arrested.
Sunday
October 13th, 2024
10:41PM
