Fired school chief used e-mail to solicit sex

Brunswick, Ga. — Glynn County’s school superintendent, who was fired last week, had used his school system BlackBerry and e-mail address to seek sex from people posting classified ads on the Internet, two newspapers reported Wednesday.

The Glynn County School Board, which fired superintendent Michael Bull on Friday, initially said he used his BlackBerry to look at a pornographic Web site. Copies of Bull’s e-mails, obtained by the Georgia Times-Union and The Brunswick News, show he was sending e-mail messages to advertisers offering sex on the popular site Craigslist.

“I apologize for my actions to everyone who’s been impacted, especially to my family, the Glynn County school family and the community,” Bull told The Brunswick News on Tuesday. “I made a mistake. I had a lapse in judgment.”

Records obtained by the newspapers under the Georgia Open Records Act show that Bull used his school system e-mail address to reply to six online ads Feb. 18, when Bull was staying at a Savannah hotel during a business trip.

Some of the e-mails had subject lines referring to specific sex acts. Others were more general, such as “lets do this now.” Bull received several replies asking for his phone number, or for him to send a photograph. The e-mails contain nothing to indicate whether Bull met with anyone replying to his messages.

The school board voted to fire Bull for improper used of school property Friday, two days after he sent the e-mails, after they were flagged by the Glynn County schools’ computer system.

“The sooner we get this behind us, the better,” said Millard Allen, the board chairman. “We need to get on with the business of educating children.”

Allen said Bull told the board he sent the messages after having too much to drink. Nothing in the messages indicated any sexual overtures involving children.

Bull was fired two months after the school board extended his contract, with an annual salary of $167,648, through 2011. He had served as Glynn County school superintendent since 2005.

Bull will not receive any severance pay or buyout money because he was fired for violating school system policy.