The principal of George Washington High School said it was an accident when he sent an email that contained personnel-related information about a counselor at the school in 2015.
Principal George Aulenbacher said Tuesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court he meant to send a draft of information regarding a personnel matter with Mary "Kackie" Eller to a vice principal, but he said the auto-fill function in his email instead sent the note to faculty and staff at George Washington High School.
Aulenbacher testified for about two hours Tuesday during the first day of the trial in which Eller, a counselor at George Washington, said Aulenbacher and the Kanawha County Board of Education defamed her, portrayed her in a false light and committed invasion of her privacy in what she said was a wrongful suspension in February 2015. She also said those claims were supported by an email Aulenbacher sent in March 2015 called "Kackie Eller Senior Counseling Issues."
Tuesday was the first time Aulenbacher and Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Ron Duerring were able to answer Eller's claims in court.
In her complaint filed in the lawsuit, Eller said she was notified on Feb. 13, 2015 that she was being suspended from work. The suspension went into effect the following Monday, Feb. 16.
Aulenbacher testified that Eller had failed to notify authorities of a report of a sexual assault against a female GW student by a male GW student, which is what led to her suspension.
Aulenbacher said he learned of the sexual assault on Nov. 19, 2014, when he was contacted by a Judge Advocate General Corps, or JAG, attorney with the Army National Guard, who asked him what GW officials were doing about the sexual assault.
The assault was reported to have been perpetrated by a JROTC member against another JROTC member following a GW playoff football game in October 2014.
Aulenbacher said he called Eller to his office on Nov. 19, and they had an argument about the situation. Duerring also testified he later received a parent complaint that Eller had advised the female student to not report the sexual assault as to avoid having a negative impact on the male student's future.
Aulenbacher testified the victim decided not to press charges in the case.
By the time Eller was informed of her suspension on Feb. 13, 2015, Kanawha County Schools officials were in the midst of another case in which a school official was accused of failing to notify authorities about a sexual assault.
On Feb. 3, 2015 then-Capital High School Principal Clinton Giles was charged with failing to notify authorities of a sexual assault. Giles was alleged to have waited a day to notify authorities of a sexual assault of a student on school grounds in January 2015. Giles was suspended without pay and eventually retired amid the ramifications from the charge.
The criminal charge against Giles was dropped on March 19, 2015.
At the time Eller was suspended, Duerring said he had received legal counsel from Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Chuck Miller in regard to the case involving Giles.
Duerring said he made the recommendation to suspend Eller with pay, which was approved by Board of Education members, based on counsel he received in the Giles case, but he said Miller did not counsel him in regard to Eller.
While Eller was suspended, Aulenbacher said some issues, including incomplete FAFSA applications and some incomplete high school transcripts, were discovered, leading him to draft the email that included the issues affecting students in Eller's care and the names of students whose transcripts were said to be incomplete. At the time of her suspension, Eller was the counselor for between 250 and 300 12th grade students at the school.
Aulenbacher, as well as a substitute counselor who filled in while Eller was suspended, said in court Tuesday that Aulenbacher was not engaging in an investigation into Eller's work nor was such an endeavor discussed.
Aulenbacher said the information in the email was factual, and he said he felt he was acting in the best interest of the affected students by putting the information he received into a single document with the intention of presenting it to county district officials.
Aulenbacher said he wanted to have a vice principal proofread the draft, but when he typed in letters from the vice principal's name the auto-fill in his email account put in the school's faculty mailing list.
Aulenbacher said he immediately realized he made a mistake and said he "wanted to throw up" and was embarrassed. He also said the vice principal informed him about it almost immediately after he sent it.
Duerring and Aulenbacher said Aulenbacher called Duerring as soon as he realized what he'd done, and Duerring contacted employees in the school district's IT department, who deleted the email.
By then, several faculty and staff members saw the note, including a former math teacher who testified Tuesday.
The email was sent in early March, near the time Eller was set to come back to work.
When she returned on March 13, 2015, Eller was placed in an office near a busy part of the administrative wing of the school, instead of the counselor's wing, where her normal office was. Eller's attorney, James Cagle, said Tuesday the relocation was an attempt to embarrass Eller and push her into retirement. Aulenbacher testified he put Eller in that office since the substitute counselor still was working in Eller's normal office and the school was limited in office space.
Eller's suit said Aulenbacher frequently asked her to retire from the time he became principal at the school in July 2010. Aulenbacher said he asked her in 2011 if she planned to retire, saying he'd wanted to plan for any personnel changes in the upcoming school year.
At the time she filed her lawsuit in 2015, Eller had been a counselor at George Washington High School for more than 30 years.
Testimony in the case is expected to last until Friday.
Reach Lacie Pierson at lacie.pierson@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @laciepierson on Twitter.