Haircut draws 3-day penalty

2/9/2006

A secretary at Washington Local's Greenwood Elementary who cut the hair of a five-year-old student in December was suspended for three days without pay last month, school officials revealed after a special meeting last night.

During the meeting, the Washington Local Board of Education voted to fire Vickie Seel, a Whitmer High School custodian. The resolution said she was being terminated for alleged theft, negligence of duty, and failure to do her work. Business manager David Bringman said after the meeting the alleged theft involved a battery charger.

Superintendent Michael Carmean said after the meeting that the secretary in the hair-cutting incident, Lauren Marvin, was given three days off work without pay, but declined to provide any more details.

Ms. Seel and Ms. Marvin could not be reached for comment last night.

"You are going to have a hard time finding information [about the suspension]. You're going to have to dig for it," said Mr. Carmean, who last month formally offered to retire July 28 if the school district would rehire him as superintendent so he could collect both his state pension and a salary. The board accepted the notice, but has not yet acted on rehiring him.

After 35 years as a public employee, Mr. Carmean - who is now paid $147,354 annually - would receive as retirement pay nearly 90 percent of the average salary for his three highest-paid years.