PICKERINGTON, Ohio — A Pickerington high school principal returned to work Friday amid an ongoing investigation by the district into a complaint.
Pickerington Local Schools District announced Tuesday that Stacy Tennenbaum, who serves as principal at Pickerington Central High School, was being temporarily placed on administrative leave.
In an updated statement sent to families Friday, the district said the incident remains under investigation, but officials do not believe Tennenbaum’s return to the high school will interfere with investigative efforts.
Tennebaum reportedly informed district officials about a comment she made to a student on Jan. 27 that was "perceived as culturally insensitive."
“The remark was in reference to an interaction with a student with whom I have spent countless hours building a relationship,” Tennenbaum said in a letter addressed to staff.
The district said Tennenbaum will receive cultural sensitivity training and “has expressed her commitment to further atone her actions.”
"No matter the outcome of the investigation, I will seek out additional cultural sensitivity training to better understand how my words and actions impact students from all backgrounds," Tennenbaum said.
“I’m glad that she’s back where she is because that’s where she deserves to be,” Lesli Gilligan said.
10TV News spoke with Central Ohio mother Lesli Gilligan Wednesday after she says the district was less than transparent about why Tennenbaum was placed on administrative leave in the first place.
Gilligan wonders if this was known back in January why parents were left in the dark.
“We know that we are not intended to know the specifics,” Gilligan said. “But, it seems very clear the district chooses when and where to share details and when they don’t.”
Also on Tuesday, Pickerington North High School Principal Mark Ulbrich was placed on leave for a separate, unrelated incident. The details of that investigation are unknown at this time.
For the past two weeks, Gilligan says rumors have only grown and many, if not all of them, have been damning to both Tennenbaum and Ulbrich’s characters.
Rumors, Gilligan feels, the district could have absolutely squashed.
“And what [the district is] doing is they’re taking an administrator who has near 30 years in the district and dragging her name through the mud for something she had integrity enough to go and report herself,” she said.
When asked for an update concerning Ulbrich’s status, the district says it will not answer any more questions and that the district’s attorneys are now handling responses because these are “personnel issues.”