By LEONARD GRAY

Managing Editor

RESERVE – Jerry “Texx” Galloway, former principal at West St. John High School in Edgard, is now under a six-week suspension

Currently, he is the parish-wide supervisor of safe and drug-free schools.

The disciplinary action ws taken by the St. John Parish School Board recently “for breaking board policy,” according to Board president Dr. Gerald Keller.

The decision was reached, Keller continued, as a fallout from the theft of $10,000 from the Edgard school following the 2003 Homecoming game.

Keller emphasized strongly that this action was not any sort of admission of guilt on Galloway’s part on the theft itself, only that the disciplinary action was for the violation of the policy.

The Board policy, as Keller explained it, mandates that such receipts be deposited at a bank on that same day, and escorted by a deputy to the bank for security, rather than being left the receipts on the school premises overnight.

Instead, the $10,000 was locked into the school safe that Friday night and left behind.

The theft was discovered on the following Monday morning.

The cash would have been used for helping to finance certain school amenities, such as band uniforms.

Furthermore, Keller continued, after the suspension is completed, Galloway will not resume his duties but be demoted to an assisant principal position on the East Bank, at an elementary school yet to be named. This will also mean a $10,000 cut in annual pay, from his current $62,.883.

Galloway could not be reached for comment. Likewise, Superintendent of Schools Michael Coburn was out of town and unavailable for any possible comment.

Meanwhile, the investigation is continuing into the theft by the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office. No progress has been reported on that investigation.

Galloway has been an employee of the St. John Parish public school system for nearly 20 years, Keller said.

The action was taken following discussion between Coburn and the board.