COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – According to documents released by the South Carolina Board of Education, the educator certificate for Pamela D Quick, former Principal of West Florence High, was suspended earlier this month.
The order of suspension says the state board found that evidence presented by the department of education demonstrated that Quick “engaged in unprofessional conduct and demonstrated evident unfitness for the position for which she was employed, as a result of failure to address reports of sexual harassment and changing a student’s grade.”
The board made the decision to suspend the certificate for two years after discussing the case December 11, 2018.
The state says Quick has 25 years of teaching experience and during the time of her misconduct, she was the principal at West Florence High School. She was placed on administrative leave on February 14, 2018, and resigned from her position on February 23, 2018. Quick cited “personal reasons” for her departure from the school in a fill-in-the-blank style resignation letter.
The district reported Quick’s conduct to the state in March. The document notes that Quick was initially accused of not properly documenting reports of an employee sexually harassing other teachers in October of 2017. The staff member who reported the harassment learned of Quick’s failure to file the documents after telling another supervisor about the harassment on February 5, 2018.
While investigating the sexual harassment incident, the school district learned of allegations that Quick was accused of using her position to change a student’s grade.
The department of education says the student reportedly received a “FA” in the class after accumulating 11 days over the allowed number of absences. Because of the failing grade, the student was no longer eligible to play on the high school’s sports teams. The report says the student’s mother was a friend of Quick. The former principal is accused of submitting the appeal to the attendance clerk past the appeal deadline and instructing the attendance clerk to have another administrator change the student’s grade. The student was allowed to return to the sports team, but the team’s coach was unsure of the students true eligibility and didn’t play the student in any games.
Dr. Kelvin Wymbs was appointed as interim principal of West Florence High School after Quick’s resignation last year. In April, the district announced Matthew Dowdell would take over as the high school’s new principal.
