Gallatin Co. schools coach Steve Vinyard suspended WITH pay for 09-10 school year
(3 votes, average: 2.33 out of 5)
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(3 votes, average: 2.33 out of 5) Loading ...By admin
Published: March 2, 2010
Steve Vinyard, at left, is accompanied by family members after being called in to the executive session of the Gallatin County school board. Oddly, family were allowed to go into the closed session, for an undisclosed reason.
GALLATIN CO., Ill.—Following an executive session that lasted an hour and ten minutes, Gallatin County schools teacher/coach Steve Vinyard was suspended tonight (03.02.10) with pay for the remainder of the 2009-10 school year.
Vinyard was sent home from school a week ago following what has been reported to Disclosure from sources that included students, concerned parents, and even school staff and law enforcement as a preliminary investigation into inappropriate conduct by Vinyard. Disclosure called school admin last Friday in order to get a comment but no calls were returned. It remains unclear exactly what the inappropriate conduct, if indeed that is the problem, really was.
Tuesday’s meeting of the school board began in what appeared to be tension, but at times evolved into a raucous event, with loud guffawing erupting spontaneously from members present in the executive session (the laughter could be heard out in the hallway outside the library where reporters were sent upon the closed session being called.)
The Gallatin County schools board was at turns tense as well as roaring with laughter; here, they're kind of waiting to see what media is going to do
Members of the school board were otherwise subdued; a woman, who appeared to be present to give legal counsel (although it wasn’t readily apparent if it were for the school board or for Vinyard) was rather stern-looking for the most part; and what appeared to be family members of Vinyard’s were actually allowed into the executive session during a small portion of it.
These same family members stomped out of the library at one point in the closed session, to be greeted by Disclosure‘s camera flashing, as well as a cameraman from WSIL filming. One of two women among the group accompanying Vinyard into the meeting, all of whom looked perturbed beyond measure, snorted and said “God. Frikkin leave, this is stupid,” this while staring at the cameras and indicating the media.
Vinyard later entered the library and faced the school board. Still in closed session, he could be heard yelling; while not necessarily at the board, it was clear he was emphatic. At one point he could be heard clearly yelling, “I treat these kids like my own family, I hug em, I kiss em…” which probably wasn’t the best thing to say under the circumstances, as the allegation rumored to be against him was inappropriate conduct around the students he coaches.
This man, who refused to give his name when asked by Disclosure after Disclosure refused to identify themselves (because, really...why? We had a camera and a computer, of COURSE we're media) made a big show of locking this hallway door so that Vinyard and his herd could escape the building without being photographed or filmed; WSIL was present as well
After Vinyard appeared in front of the board, he then left to go to a waiting room (apparently the science room) to wait comfortably for the school board’s decision. Others were waiting with him. Then, in an unbelievably spineless move, one of the men acting as ‘bodyguard’ for Vinyard made a big show out of locking the doors to the hallway to the east of the library, with Vinyard still in the science room…and there he stayed until the board announced his suspension. As a result of this move, Vinyard was apparently able to leave the building from another exit without having to walk past waiting media and without the media being able to get through the locked doors to see where he was.
Photos will be up as soon as we get home; more details will be given in the print version of Disclosure, on stands March 17.
Vinyard and family members were able to leave the building from another entrance than the front (where the rest of those present were limited) following the executive session
Tagged with: Disclosure, Gallatin, media, print version, school board, schools, Steve Vinyard, WSIL
You havent’t heard anything about what he actually did? Maybe it’s because i have friends in high school still and that means im still in the “loop” lol. Apparently he got caught sending text messages to a high school student. Not exactly sure what they said but I’m guessing he finally crossed a line with the wrong little girl. No suprise to me that this is happening. He’s been doing this for quite some time, especially when he was the basketball coach at Harrisburg. He was a little too close to the girls who played on his team. Hate to single the guy out considering a lot of male teachers do exactly what he did only difference is, Vinyard got caught!
What pisses me off even more about this is the fact that the county and school is making cuts and now we have 2 people( the sheriff and now this teacher) on the payroll who shouldn’t be. Imagine what their salaries combined could help out with.
Thank you dad of 3. We’ve had the Steve Vinyard supporters bitching at and about us to high heaven, all because we wrote the facts and the truth. Why WOULDN’T people want to know the truth?? If someone had written the TRUTH about this guy years ago, he likely wouldn’t have been hired at Gallatin. If someone had let us sell our paper in Gallatin County in 2006 in accordance to the demand (we were being sold but only in Ridgway—thanks, Ridgway!), maybe Raymond wouldn’t have won the election THAT year because we wrote the TRUTH about him. But noooo, the ops had to come crawling out and smear us and get our product driven out of the area to protect their ‘interests.’ And now their ‘interests’ are costing the taxpayers about $770 a week unnecessarily, and there’s not a damn thing that can be done about it.
Well, except that last year Allan Roe COULD have pursued official misconduct charges against Martin, rammed it through trial just like they would any other loser in the county, and got him a felony conviction. THEN Gallatin could have stopped paying for his jailed ass. But he hasn’t even done that. Why??
And people say shitty things about us. Good god. At least we’re not spending taxpayers’ money doing NOTHING.
Steve is saying the charges against him were dropped.
There were never any charges to BE dropped. How mental IS this guy??
I didn’t think there were any charges filed either, but that’s what he said. I didn’t question him just heard him talking. Also said he didn’t do anything wrong. Probably won’t get rehired at Gallatin County though.
Well, I believe it. He certainly doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong; we could tell that by what little we heard at the meeting. Thanks for letting us know!
Allan Roe has been neutered. He does not have a clue of what he is doing. That is 1 reason there is no charges.
Well, that explains a LOT…
anyone know whatever happened with vinyard, patton and crawford? anything get done about em?