An Atlanta Public Schools principal resigned last month shortly after a teacher told district officials he had retaliated against her when she did not respond to his sexual advances.
Eldrick Horton was hired as principal of Douglass High School, in northwest Atlanta, in 2012. He previously served in the same role from 2001-2006.
In 2013, he sent a Douglass teacher a series of text messages which read, in part, “Professionalism aside, I have a confession! … Being around you makes me want to [have sex with] you!,” according to a May 21 letter to then-superintendent Erroll Davis from the teacher’s lawyer. (Davis retired June 30.)
In a May 28 letter to Davis, Horton admitted sending the text messages and called his own conduct “inappropriate” and “unprofessional.” But he said he had not “rendered inappropriate treatment” as a result of the messages.
Horton and the teacher had been friends and briefly dated in 2008 and 2009, while he worked for the Fulton County school district, but the relationship ended before he returned to Douglass, according to her letter.
That summer, according to her complaint, she tried to transfer to another APS high school, but Horton blocked her transfer.
Atlanta Public Schools initially denied The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s request under Georgia’s public-records law for the teacher’s complaint about Horton, saying it did not exist. After repeated questions, the district forwarded a copy of her letter. District spokesperson Kimberly Willis Green said the delay was due to a misunderstanding about what the district considers a complaint.
At the end of the 2013-14 school year, the teacher received the lowest possible rating on her job evaluation, in part because of an observation by Horton. She had received the second-highest rating the previous year. The low rating, which was the product of classroom visits from several administrators, meant she could not transfer out of Douglass.
In her complaint, the teacher said she felt sexually harassed by Horton and “trapped in getting away from him and the power he has over her as her supervisor.” She asked to be transferred to a different school with “a different supervisor determining her future at Atlanta Public Schools.”
She has since filed a federal complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which can be a first step toward filing a discrimination lawsuit.
In his letter, Horton asked Davis to forgive him and consider suspending him, demoting him or allowing him to resign. Horton resigned June 2, effective June 16. Horton told the AJC Thursday he had no comment on the situation.
The teacher said the district has since raised her job rating.
District policy requires the district to "review and address as appropriate" all reports of alleged discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Green said the district's handling of the complaint was in line with that policy.
“There was no need for an investigation regarding this matter because it was handled so swiftly,” she said.
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