COLLEYVILLE (1080 KRLD) - The Grapevine-Colleyville ISD has outlined some of the non-reasons for placing one of its high school principals on administrative leave.
On Monday, the district placed Colleyville Heritage High School Principal Dr. James Whitfield on paid administrative leave, with immediate effect.
While still not specifying the reasons for the decision, the school district identified issues that did not influence its decision.
"The decision to place Dr. Whitfield on administrative leave was not a result of statements made by members of the public, including those who spoke at recent meetings of the GCISD Board of Trustees," the district said in a statement to KRLD. "Nor was the decision made in response to allegations Dr. Whitfield was teaching Critical Race Theory, or because of the photos on his social media account that were brought to the attention of the District in 2019."
After being placed on leave, Whitfield issued a statement, saying he did nothing wrong and was speaking up after the school board allowed a speaker to criticize him by name, referencing his lengthy Facebook post from late July.
That Facebook post led to an outpouring of support for Dr. Whitfield.
The district said it would continue to follow its procedures for resolving Whitfield's ongoing personnel matter.
"We understand that members of our community have questions, but the District does not resolve personnel matters in the media," the district said in its statement from late Wednesday afternoon. "We have established procedures for that which we are following."
