EVERETT – Longtime band director Jim Johnson is being removed from Cascade High School because of his oversight of a former assistant convicted of child molestation, district files show.
Dozens of students and parents have protested since learning Johnson was being removed from the award-winning program.
Superintendent Carol Whitehead has said only that Johnson did not properly follow district policies.
Johnson earlier declined to comment. His lawyer did not return calls made over several days.
A Herald review of Johnson’s personnel file under open records laws revealed a strained relationship between the band director and administrators.
The last straw was his oversight of Jeffrey Day, a Puyallup attorney who for seven years was a paid percussion coach for the Cascade High School band program.
The district placed Day on leave in April 2004 after he was charged in Pierce County with molesting an 11-year-old boy. While Day’s case went through the legal system, he was not to have contact with students or be on school grounds.
Without the district’s knowledge, Johnson continued to allow Day to attend off-campus competitions and offer critiques to him on students’ performances, according to the file.
The most recent contest was in September, when Johnson “claimed that (he) worked to keep students away from Mr. Day in Wenatchee by telling Mr. Day not to have contact with any Cascade students.”
A jury convicted Day in October. Afterward, Johnson was open with students about his belief that Day was not guilty.
Day had gone through the district’s required screening process, which includes a State Patrol background check, before working with students.
Two other volunteers at the time, however, had not undergone that examination, according to a district review. Johnson had been reprimanded for the same oversight in December 2003.
In all, Johnson displayed “a pattern of behavior” that showed disregard for school policies meant to protect students, according to a March letter signed by Whitehead.
In a written statement to The Herald, Whitehead said Johnson did not do anything that warranted being fired.
“I feel the best assignment for the current Cascade band teacher is in a situation where he will not be required to meet district policies and procedures necessary for a marching band instructor,” she said.
In addition to being moved to another school starting next fall, Johnson was suspended for five days without pay. He appealed the suspension; a hearing is to be held in August.
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