INDIANA -- The C. A. Beard Memorial School Corporation
officially fired the Knightstown High School yearbook and newspaper adviser last
week following controversy over including a section in the yearbook about
pregnant students.
But Principal Scott Ritchie said the incident was only one of several
things that led to the firing of K.C. Salter, who has been the yearbook adviser
at Knightstown for nine years.
Ritchie said that a pregnant student was upset that a yearbook staff member
had come into a classroom to take a picture of her. The staffer also told the
pregnant student that she needed the name of the baby's father so she
could get a picture of him too, he said.
But Salter said the situation, which happened about three months ago, has
been exaggerated and the staff was not trying to embarrass anyone or match up
mothers and fathers. He said nothing specific was planned yet and the reporter
was only trying to find other students to talk to and photograph.
"I would never go that direction," he said. "That would
be irresponsible of an adviser to even suggest that."
Yearbook staffers had the idea to cover the school's pregnancy
problem and had only started brainstorming ideas, Salter said. He took
responsibility for the staffer's actions.
"I thought I was clear with the student, and she was a little
overzealous," he said.
Ritchie said he was fine with the students covering the school's teen
pregnancy problem, but was concerned about how the staff member demonstrated a
lack of training in handling the situation.
"They did a pregnancy piece in our newspaper earlier this
year," he said. "It was very well done and well
written."
The yearbook incident was not the only reason Salter was fired, Ritchie
said. He cited poor performance with classroom management, discipline and
quality, but declined to comment further publicly. Declining quality of the
yearbook and newspaper was part of that, he said.
"This is one small piece of the puzzle that got us here,"
Ritchie said, referring to the yearbook controversy. "If this is all we
had, I don't know if we would be to this point right now."
Salter acknowledged that the quality of the yearbook and newspaper was not
up to what the administration wanted. But he said after Ritchie asked him to
restart the newspaper two years ago, he felt he had inadequate time and
resources to do both.
The district has started looking for a replacement for next year but has
allowed Salter to stay for the rest of the school year, Ritchie said.
Salter said he plans to challenge his firing because he does not think the
district followed proper procedures leading up to last week's
decision.
By Josh Moore, SPLC staff writer
