School board votes again on the fate of former Sussex Central Principal Bradley Layfield

The Indian River Board of Education voted to terminate former Sussex Central High School Principals Bradley Layfield and Matt Jones for a second time Thursday night.

Back in May 2023, 18-year-old senior Aniya Harmon's breast was briefly exposed during an altercation at the Georgetown-area school, which was recorded on surveillance video. Jones made a meme of the incident, according to a lawsuit filed by Harmon, and Layfield shared the video with numerous employees, which he admits.

While Layfield claims he shared the video for safety reasons, at a district hearing in February, employees testified he did so in a mocking and derisive manner.

"We were laughing," employee Chris Revel said.

What happened at the Indian River school board meeting

The March 21 board meeting was a special one, held only to vote on Layfield's and Jones' jobs. After receiving recommendations from retired Judge William Carpenter, who oversaw Layfield's public hearing in February, the board members discussed it in an executive session. They then voted publicly to terminate both employees, again.

Seven of 10 board members voted in favor of termination. Board member Gerald Peden abstained from both votes and declined to state why. Board member Donald Hattier recused himself from the first vote, which was presumably Layfield's.

Board member Heather Statler recused herself from both votes because, during the investigation and subsequent hearing, she learned a meme had been made about her related to "the work I do with four females in the special education department."

"Some may identify me as a victim in this case and, in their view, my impartiality may be diminished," Statler said.

When she was appointed in 2019, Statler told a reporter she worked for Delaware Technical Community College "as an academic counselor who focuses on students with special needs."

In a news release issued shortly after the decision, Layfield's attorney, Thomas Neuberger, said he asked board President Legola Wright to recuse herself, as well, because she is Facebook "friends" with the Harmon family.

"This failure to be impartial can be the basis of a civil rights lawsuit against the District by Dr. Layfield since her participation tainted the executive session debate on the termination," Neuberger wrote.

"Counsel doubts whether Dr. Layfield will go away quietly in the night after more than 9 months of character assassination by the District," Neuberger continued. "He has two years to recover emotionally and make up his mind on his next steps."

What led up to the Indian River board vote

Layfield, a 22-year district employee, and Jones were placed on leave immediately after the incident. Harmon filed her lawsuit in September, which has yet to be tried. After the board first voted to fire the two principals, in November, Layfield requested a public termination hearing, which was his right by law.

Jones has been unreachable and made no public statements, but Layfield and his lawyer, Wilmington's Thomas Neuberger, have issued numerous press releases to "defend his good name." The Indian River School District was legally bound to be silent until the public hearing.

At the hearing, a long line of witnesses testified to Layfield's unprofessional behavior. Layfield declined to testify, given the state may still decide to prosecute him. His case was made mainly in Neuberger's "final closing argument," in the form of a document submitted to the judge. The judge then made a recommendation to the Board of Education.

In the closing argument, and in his press releases, Neuberger focused mainly on issues of race, politics, school violence and the district's video surveillance policies, or lack thereof.

The "fight," which is a debatable term to describe the incident, was racial, Neuberger argued, because Harmon is Black. The Indian River School District had another racial incident in September 2022, Neuberger pointed out, involving Layfield's brother and then-school board President Rodney Layfield.

At a football game at Sussex Central, Rodney Layfield made remarks perceived as racist by Hodgson Vo-Tech coaches, leading to the call for a vote of no confidence in him by the school board, which ultimately failed.

Less than a year later, when Harmon's incident occurred, "Politically ... (the district) needed to look like it had clean hands," Neuberger wrote in his final argument.

Layfield shared the video with staff for safety reasons, according to Neuberger, to make them aware of the incident and potentially prevent future incidents.

"School fights are a major unpublicized problem in this and other public school districts throughout the State of Delaware," Neuberger's argument said. "They need to be controlled and prevented from escalating into serious injuries for any students."

As for why Layfield was laughing while sharing the video, Neuberger's final argument said his "use of humor" was "a means of alleviating stress and raising the spirits of the fellow teachers and administrators."

The district has no policies related to sharing surveillance video with staff, Neuberger pointed out. In fact, when Layfield served under Jay Owens, who was then-Sussex Central principal and is now district superintendent, Owens shared video containing student nudity with staff, Neuberger said.

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At the district hearing, James McMackin, the district's attorney, made it a point to clarify that Owens was not mocking students in the videos he shared.

After the meeting, Hattier spoke to reporters.

"I personally believe that the video surveillance ... policies are plenty adequate," Hattier said. "I'm certain that nobody ever envisioned that something like this would be used in this particular way."

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @Marvel McNaught.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Indian River school board votes to fire Sussex Central principal again