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Friday, April 06, 2007

Public to Hear from Key Figure in Sex Scandal

Ware Shoals, SC (TLS). For the very first time since the story of Jill Moore broke, a key figure in the Ware Shoals High School cheerleader sex scandal will go public with her side of the story.

Ware Shoals High School Principal Jane Blackwell will publicly discuss her role in the events leading to her arrest for obstruction and the resignation of Moore this morning in a special open meeting of the School Board. The meeting will be held in the Ware Shoals High School Auditorium and will be begin at 9 AM.

Blackwell faces charges of obstruction and hiding evidence from police in their investigation of former cheerleader coach Jill Moore, who resigned after admitting that she took students off campus after ball games to give them alcohol and cigarettes. She has been charged with several counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Moore denies the charges of an affair with a male student at the high school or of taking cheerleaders off campus during the school day to meet two National Guardsmen for sex. The Guardsmen, however, have been disciplined and reassigned, which suggests that there is reason to believe something untoward took place between them, the cheerleaders, and Moore.

The office of the Circuit Solicitor (the state's attorney) states that the only reason the two Guardsmen were not charged with rape is that the cheerleaders in question are over the legal age of consent in S.C.

Principal Blackwell's role in this sordid mess involves what she knew (or didn't know), and what she did about it. Law enforcement officials claim they confiscated a diary belonging to Blackwell that details an internal school investigation into the allegations about Jill Moore. In addition, several students claim that Blackwell told them not to speak to investigators. Thus, the obstruction charge.

Blackwell's attorney has dismissed the claims by the students that his client forbade them to speak to investigators. Instead, he says, Blackwell was referring to gossip about the case in the middle of an ongoing police investigation.

Yet, there is another key element pertaining to the validity of the obstruction charge. This issue revolves around what Blackwell knew and when she knew it. If she was, indeed, conducting an internal investigation into allegations of improper behavior on the part of a school employee, then the details concerning the time line of that investigation are key.

How long had the investigation been ongoing? What did Blackwell uncover? Had her investigation been completed? If so, when? If not, then what was the focus of the continuing incomplete investigation? Is there any indication in the diary of what Blackwell intended to do once the investigation was complete?

In addition, what is school district protocol in cases of this nature? Was Blackwell following procedure in withholding information concerning the investigation until district officials had been notified about her findings? Had they already been notified of her findings? If not, is there any indication in the documents that Blackwell was intending to disclose the results of her investigation to district officials?

These questions are of utmost importance, for there may be a very simple explanation to each of the allegations concerning Blackwell's alleged 'obstruction.'

Perhaps Blackwell will shed timely and revealing light on these issues this morning.

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