Alleged ‘inappropriate physical contact’ leads school counselor to resign

Published 5:36 pm Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Breaking News

An employee with the Elizabethton City Schools system resigned last week following a report of “inappropriate physical contact” with another employee, according to Director of Schools Dr. Corey Gardenhour.

ECS administration conducted an investigation, and Gardenhour said the day after the complaint was filed, T.A. Dugger Junior High School Counselor Brian Moore resigned.

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According to information on the school’s website, Moore had been in education for over 20 years and has worked at Unaka Elementary, Unaka High School and at Elizabethton High School.

School officials say further details should be released as early as Thursday.

EDITOR’S NOTE:
In the original version of this story which was published online an error was made. The Elizabethton Star published an article on Thursday, April 21, stating a T.A. Dugger school counselor had resigned following investigation regarding alleged inappropriate physical contact with another Elizabethton City Schools employee. The statement in the first sentence of the story, attributed to Director of Schools Dr. Corey Gardenhour, was in part erroneous, as Gardenhour did not identify the complainant or the alleged offender in the situation.
Gardenhour’s statement was: “We fully investigated a report of inappropriate physical contact with another employee, and based on that, the teacher involved resigned.” In attempt to clarify during the editing process, a phrase was added stating the inappropriate contact was “by the counselor,” which was not part of the statement by Dr. Gardenhour. The STAR regrets any damage done to the reputations of the persons involved and any confusion this may have caused affected parties.