By: Jacob Kessler
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jacob@thevillagereporter.com
Recently, allegations were made against Pike-Delta-York High School Principal Doug Ford. These allegations involved a student being asked to “remove his pants” without another individual or a parent in the room during the search.
After the incident had taken place, videos of a discussion between the mother, Tiffany Sargent, and principal Doug Ford were placed on social media.
The videos were then picked up by a youtuber which amplified the videos even further online, putting its reach out far beyond the confines of the village limits.
Since then, it has been reported that both sides have received harassments and threats. Some of these threats have reportedly included threats of harm against one or more individuals, which has prompted the addition of law enforcement even further into the situation.
The whole issue began when the student in question had his phone on his person while transferring into second period.
According to Tiffany Sargent, her son was watching a video on his phone when the teacher saw it. The period had not yet begun but, students were not allowed to have their phones in the classroom either way.
Sargent also explained that her son put the phone into his shorts before the teacher got to him. When the teacher asked for the phone, he informed her that he did not have one. Due to the phone not being allowed in class, Mr. Ford was called to address the situation.
“Mr. Ford came down there and he said, do I have to call your mother? And (the student) said, I don’t care.”
“And he (Mr. Ford) said, do I have to wand you? And (the student) said, I don’t care. So, my son was lying this whole time. He had the phone in that waistband.”
Sargent continued and explained that the two went to the office where her son was wanded behind a closed door. The wand hit on his waist where the phone was at, and her son said it was the metal on his jeans.
She further states that Mr. Ford then instructed her son the following. “Mr. Ford says, you got shorts on underneath that, drop your pants. He takes his shoes off, drops his pants, phone falls out because it was just in the waistband.”
The student was then instructed to serve an in-school suspension. Sargent also states that she did not receive a phone call before or after the event took place, and that it was not until seeing an email later that evening before bed that she began to question things.
“I open it up (the email), it states something along the lines of, he eventually came up with it. It was in his shorts under his pants. So, I woke up in the morning curious as to how it was found underneath your pants. He says, Mr. Ford made me take my pants down. And I said what? Why didn’t you say anything. He’s like, what do you mean, I thought he was allowed to do that.”
Sargent states that she then went to the Delta Police Department that morning to file a police report regarding the incident. She also states that she made numerous attempts to contact the board office that following week but had not heard back by Wednesday.
Following those days, a phone call was received by both of her sons at the school to inform her that the son with the phone was being taken back into the office again by Mr. Ford, due to an issue with assigned seats at lunch.
“Mr. Ford walks up and he says, (student) what are you doing? And he was like, I am just sitting here. And he (Mr. Ford) was like, that’s not your assigned seat.”
“And (the student) said, since when do we have assigned seats? And he (Mr. Ford) said, since I assigned it to you. So, he (the student) was like, we’ve never had assigned seats or given me an assigned seat.”
“Now it turned into, this is insubordination. Go to the office. We’re going to call your parents which again, I still did not get a call. I came in because my kids called me.”
Following a discussion in the office between Sargent and Mr. Ford (which was recorded and uploaded to social media by Sargent), Tiffany explained that she received a phone call from Superintendent Burke.
“He was apologetic. He talked to Doug on Tuesday. He was able to talk to him and let him know my concerns. He’s not going to do it again, he is going to comply with the policy and do things better from now on. He is going to have a witness in the room.”
Even with the conversations taking place, Sargent states that she no longer feels comfortable sending her children to school and is now looking into online options.
After the situation became viral on the internet, which took place quickly, Pike-Delta-York Superintendent Jon Burke sent out the following statement through email.
“As a district, we value our relationships with students, staff, and parents. While we are aware of the situation, we will not be commenting on the specifics of this incident out of respect for the privacy of all involved.”
Subsequent conversations with Mr. Burke also revealed the position of the district, in that Principal Doug Ford’s actions did not violate board policy and that he did not commit a crime.
It was further stated that the student in question was asked if he would be willing to pull down his pants due to the fact that there were shorts underneath the pants, and that after the incident had occurred the student told other students he dropped them.
It was further reiterated that the search was not a strip search due to the shorts being located underneath the pants. Further conversations are expected to take place between the school district and the family regarding the issue.
Superintendent Burke further iterated his hope that the situation can be ironed out and that everyone can move forward together.
No word has been given regarding the potential of an investigation other than a forwarding of the case to the prosecutor’s office.