A VERDICT IS IN, BUT A QUESTION REMAINS

What are people to think when principals are arrested in the night?

About 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 14, Charleston Police Cpl. J.F. Taylor noticed
a vehicle circling the Washington Manor housing complex and then
parking with its lights off.

The officer pulled in to see what was happening. The car turned out to
belong to David Anderson, principal of Pratt Elementary School, who
was observed in the vicinity of two people who were known drug users.
Police found a package in Anderson's back left pocket that contained a
small amount of cocaine. He said someone had planted it on him.
Witnesses testified that Anderson and some other educators ate at
Bennigan's restaurant, then went to an American Federation of Teachers
function. A few then went to a bar, Vandalia's, and Anderson and a
former teacher at Pratt then went to another bar.

There, Anderson said, a man he knew through his brother repeatedly
pestered him for a ride to a home behind the Marriott Hotel. When they
arrived, Anderson said, the man wouldn't get out of the car until
Anderson agreed to hold some things for him and walk him to his
friend's house. Enter the police, who found Anderson with the person's
identification and the cocaine powder.

Police charged Anderson with possession of cocaine, and he spent the
night in jail. In the next few days, he tested negative for drugs in
his system. The Kanawha County Board of Education suspended Anderson
without pay pending a disposition in the case. Former Kanawha County
Prosecutor Bill Forbes defended Anderson against the charges, and this
week, Magistrate Marva Crouch read the jury's finding: Not guilty.

This is America. People are presumed innocent unless the system proves
they are guilty.

Kanawha school board members Jim Crawford, Becky Jordon and Barbara
Welch voted to reinstate Anderson with back pay plus interest. Bill
Raglin and Pete Thaw voted against reinstatement.

The justice system has spoken. To avoid a lawsuit, the board may have
had no choice but to reinstate Anderson.

But the jury is still out on Raglin's question: "How are we going to
tell a kid in the fifth grade, who's 11 or 12 years old, that you have
to be careful who you hang out with and where you go when his or her
principal ends up with cocaine in his pocket in the wee hours of the
morning."

It may have been a fair verdict, but that's a fair question.