Breaking News on Cheerleader Sex Scandal

Ware Shoals, SC (TLS). Jane Blackwell, the principal of Ware Shoals High School accused of obstruction in the investigation of former cheerleader coach Jill Moore, will appear at a public hearing of the school board this Friday, April 6, 2007.

The meeting, which is open to the public, will take place in the Ware Shoals High School gymnasium.

Blackwell had requested the public meeting after the school board had offered to give her a hearing regarding her continued employment. The beleaguered principal chose a public hearing so that her side of the story can be told amid rumors that have run rampant in this small community.

This scandal revolves around former Ware Shoals High School cheerleading coach Jill Moore and several of her cheerleaders. Moore has admitted to giving alcohol and cigarettes to some of the cheerleaders off-campus. She is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. However, further investigations revealed that Moore allegedly got some of the cheerleaders out of class early, during school hours, in order to meet S.C. National Guardsmen at a local motel for sex.

The Guardsmen have since been disciplined and reassigned.

No criminal charges have been filed in these incidents due to the fact that none of the cheerleaders in question were under the legal age of consent.

However, Principal Jane Blackwell was charged by local investigators of obstruction when several students at Ware Shoals High School reported that she had instructed them not to speak to authorities about the case concerning Moore.

Blackwell had conducted her own investigation into the behavior of Moore late last year and had written her reports in a diary that police officials confiscated as evidence. Blackwell contends that she instructed students not to talk about the case in order to prevent false rumors from spreading around the school and the community. She maintains she never intended for her students not to speak to law enforcement officials investigating the case.

With her job on the line, Blackwell has maintained that she did absolutely nothing improper and that she intends to fight to keep her position with the school district.

At a meeting in February, the Ware Shoals School Board voted to invite Blackwell to a meeting of the Board to give her side of the story and to make her case as to why she should keep her job. The Board gave her the opportunity to accept or decline the offer and to choose whether she wanted a private or public meeting.

Blackwell chose a public meeting.

Anticipating a large crowd for the meeting, the school board decided that the hearing will be held in the gymnasium of the Ware Shoals High School this coming Friday, April 6.