Editorial: Money for nothing

Lamar Lewis has been suspended from his job as an assistant principal at South Iredell High School for the better part of a month.

He faces criminal prosecution on charges he performed a sex act in the presence of a student in the school.

Yet Lewis, 39, continued to earn his monthly salary of $2,965 from Iredell-Statesville Schools until Thursday afternoon, when he was suspended without pay via certified letter.

Taxpayers should be outraged by this waste of their hard-earned money.

Under our system of jurisprudence, Lewis is presumed innocent until he is proven guilty in a court of law. He is free on bond.

School officials have a responsibility to protect the children in their care from anyone suspected of sex crimes.

In this case, I-SS officials did just that, suspending Lewis from his duties March 11, a day after the allegations were made by a student at South Iredell High. Superintendent Terry Holliday told the R&L that Lewis would not return to work this year.

The following week, Lewis was arrested at his Charlotte home by Troutman police.

That's when we believe the assistant principal's status with I-SS should have been changed from suspended with pay to suspended without pay.

After state prosecutors have reviewed the evidence collected by sworn law enforcement officers and determined there is probable cause to believe a crime was committed and the accused is responsible, it's a different ball game. That's when the accused should be removed from the public payroll.

Holliday told the R&L this week that once an employee is suspended without pay, state law requires that the suspending agency either terminate or reinstate the employee within five days. That statue, along with the threat of civil litigation, makes administrators reluctant to remove those charged with a crime from the payroll.

Members of Iredell County's legislative delegation should take the lead in righting this wrong against taxpayers. N.C. law should state unequivocally that taxpayers will not pay the salaries of public employees who have been arrested on felony charges and suspended from work.