Superintendent accused of intimidating first grader is cleared
After an eight-month investigation, the Rose Tree Media School Board has concluded that Superintendent James Wigo neither intimidated nor threatened a 6-year-old on the second day of school as the boy's mother had alleged.
After an eight-month investigation, the Rose Tree Media School Board has concluded that Superintendent James Wigo neither intimidated nor threatened a 6-year-old on the second day of school as the boy's mother had alleged.
At a board meeting last Thursday, president William O'Donnell said that the incident in September at Indian Lane Elementary School was investigated by the acting principal, and that the directors found the accusations to be "without merit."
The matter is closed, he said.
Wigo was welcoming students to a new school year when the first grader told the superintendent, "My parents want you fired." His parents were part of a group called RTM Strong that had been fighting to oust Wigo over his firing of a popular elementary school principal the previous winter.
The boy's mother, Nancy Nicely, said Wigo threatened and intimidated her son in response. She and her husband, Don, filed complaints with the school board and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The latter case is under review.
Wigo, 65, who has run the award-winning district since 2011, said the investigation should not have taken so long.
"I knew from the onset what happened that particular day and I stand by that," he said Wednesday. "The investigation exonerated me."
Nicely said at the meeting that she was "once again disappointed, outraged, shocked, and heartbroken by the judgments made by this board."
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