George Washington High School guidance counselor Mary "Kackie" Eller said Wednesday that Principal George Aulenbacher "never really liked me from the day he walked in the door" as she testified as part of a lawsuit in which she claims she was defamed and represented in a false light by Aulenbacher and officials with the Kanawha County Board of Education.
Eller's suit stems from a month-long suspension with pay from her job and an email written by Aulenbacher that was sent to faculty and staff at the school in 2015.
From the time he became principal at the school in 2010, Eller said in her suit Aulenbacher would often ask her when she was going to retire, and she said in her suit that she thought he was trying to get her to retire from the school
"I never had problems with Mr. Aulenbacher, but Mr. Aulenbacher had problems with me," Eller said.
Eller said Wednesday she did not notify Aulenbacher, other school officials any law enforcement officers about a report of a sexual assault of a student in October 2014 because the assault happened off of school property during a weekend.
Eller said a student, who was not the victim of the assault, told another counselor about it, and the other counselor took the student to Eller, who was counselor for the reported victim.
Eller said she wasn't sure when she was told about the sexual assault, but she said she thought the matter was private and shouldn't be discussed or addressed at school.
Aulenbacher said Tuesday he heard about the assault on November 19, 2014, at least a few weeks after the incident occurred, when a Judge Advocate General Corps, or JAG, attorney with the Army National Guard contacted him about it.
Aulenbacher said he called Eller to his office, and an argument took place. Eller said Wednesday Aulenbacher asked her if she knew about the assault, and when she said she did, he asked her to leave the office.
After classes ended that day, Eller said she sought out Aulenbacher to tell him more about the situation, telling him about her perspective of her duties in the matter, since it didn't take place on school grounds.
Eller was suspended with pay from the school in February 2015. She was informed of her suspension on Friday, Feb. 13, and asked to leave the school by Aulenbacher and two vice principals. Eller said Aulenbacher was "short and to the point" during that meeting.
Eller was notified of her suspension about 10 days after former Capital High School Principal Clinton Giles had been charged with the crime of failing to notify authorities of a sexual assault that happened at that school. The charge against Giles was dropped a month later. No criminal charges were brought against Eller in the case at GW.
Her suspension was effective that Monday, Feb. 16. Eller said she spent much of her suspension at home and cried often.
While Eller was suspended, Aulenbacher said some issues, including incomplete FAFSA (financial aid) applications and some incomplete high school transcripts, were found by some students, counselors and a substitute counselor. This led him, he said, to draft an email that included the issues affecting students in Eller's care and the names of students whose transcripts were said to be incomplete.
Aulenbacher said he kept track of the issues and put together a draft of a letter that he meant to send to the school's vice principal, but that he said he accidentally sent to the mailing list of the entire GW faculty and staff. Aulenbacher said the autofill function on his email put in the mailing list instead of the vice principal's name, and he said Tuesday he was embarrassed and called the incident an honest mistake.
He and Kanawha County Superintendent Ron Deurring testified that Kanawha County Schools IT employees deleted the email from the server, but not before some faculty and staff read it.
The email was sent days before Eller was set to return to work, and Eller said one person brought a copy to her while an employee at another school and a parent of a GW student called her about it.
"When I read the first line, I cried," Eller said. "...You've really taken something that was my private business and now it's open to everyone."
Eller said the issues described in the email were "eight or nine little things that, if anybody would've called me, I could've answered in five minutes."
In her suit, Eller said the points in the email were false and defamatory.
Eller said no one called her during her suspension to ask about the issues. On Tuesday, Aulenbacher said it was his understanding that people who were suspended from work weren't contacted about school matters during their suspension.
Aulenbacher said Tuesday he was concerned the issues might prevent students from meeting requirements for graduation or starting college.
When she returned to work on March 13, Eller was put in an office in the administrative wing of the school, instead of her normal office, and she wasn't allowed to alter student records among other limitations. The new office was near where teachers' mailboxes were located, and Eller and others referred to it as the athletic director's office.
Eller said she thought the new office location was an attempt to an embarrass her since it was a high traffic area. "I felt it was purposeful," Eller said. "I felt shamed."
Aulenbacher said the substitute counselor was still working in Eller's normal office at the time, and he said there was a shortage of office space in the school.
Testimony in the case will continue Thursday morning.
Reach Lacie Pierson at lacie.pierson@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @laciepierson on Twitter.