Ki-Be Principal Investigated for Knife on Campus
BENTON CITY -- The Benton County Sheriff's Office says Kiona-Benton Principal Wayne Barrett had a pocketknife on campus. Deputies are investigating whether that knife was used to threaten a student.
KEPR has investigated this story for days, and received the investigation report from the Benton County Sheriff's Office. You can read the full report here.
It has some conflicting stories from students on just what happened last week, but everyone agrees the principal told a student to hide the rosary he was wearing, over concerns about gang members using them to show affiliation.
At least one student says Principal Wayne Barrett was holding a pocketknife in his hand at the time, and threatened to cut the rosary off with that knife.
After leaving messages for days, KEPR showed up at the district office Friday and spoke with the Ki-Be Superintendent about what happened. Rom Castilleja would only tell say the situation has been dealt with internally.
He said, "Nobody was threatened. No students ever reported that they felt threatened." KEPR asked, "What is district policy when it comes to a knife?" Castilleja answered, "Our current district policy does not hold adults to the same standard as students." KEPR also asked if there has been any disciplinary action against Barrett, but Castilleja refused to respond.
The Sheriff's Office incident report actually says a school board member checked state law, which says anyone, including a principal, cannot have a knife on campus.
Deputies interviewed a number of students as part of the investigation, and also a teacher who initially made the call to the Sheriff's Office to report the incident.
The police report says Principal Wayne Barrett called the allegations unfounded and exaggerated. He believes the teacher who called law enforcement actually used it as an opportunity to get him removed from his position. But Barrett did admit to having the knife, and turned it over to the Sheriff's Department when asked.
To make sure we got all sides, KEPR also left messages for Principal Wayne Barrett, but never heard back.
He was not in the office these last few days -- but the Superintendent would not confirm if he'd been suspended. We also spoke with Benton County Prosecutor Andy Miller about possible criminal charges, he says his office is reviewing the report and will make the final decision.
