A Clayton County school PTA shut down after thousands of dollars went missing, and police want to speak to the group's former treasurer as a "person of interest," Channel 2 Action News reported.
"All activities of the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School PTA must cease due to some serious allegations of misappropriation of funds,” according to a message sent to members on Feb. 13.
Last week, Clayton County schools Superintendent Edmond Heatley sent another letter, to the Clayton County Police Department.
A copy of that letter obtained by Channel 2 reads, “According to school officials, concerned stakeholders and citizens, money is unaccounted for from the PTA at the school. Specifically, it has been alleged that [a] former PTA treasurer … has not accounted for thousands of dollars that he was entrusted with depositing.”
The exact dollar amount of the allegedly missing funds was not immediately available.
Clayton police Sgt. Otis Willis told Channel 2, “We started our investigation approximately a week ago, and right now we speaking to PTA members as well as school personnel.”
The ex-treasurer, who has not been charged in connection with the missing funds, “is a person of interest. We just want to speak to him like we're speaking to everyone else about this case,” Willis said.
Heatley’s letter also said, “As a result of this occurrence, our students were denied the opportunity to receive promised and needed resources."
Assistant Principal Joannie Griffey told Channel 2 that when the PTA’s pledge to fund a student-incentive program fell short, “the faculty and staff rallied around and gathered the funds themselves.”
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