Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 6, 1993 TAG: 9302060059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
COUNTERFEIT CASE A PUZZLE
Colleagues of Virginia East have spent the last week asking themselves what led to the school official's arrest last month on suspicion of passing counterfeit bills.It's a question that perhaps only East can answer.
East, 55, who earned $57,318 a year as assistant superintendent of Radford schools, resigned last Saturday after being charged a week earlier in Tennessee with passing fake $100 bills at a Pigeon Forge outlet mall.
She had been second in command at Radford schools since 1988.
Teachers and other educators describe East as bright, articulate, professional and generous. They describe her arrest on counterfeiting charges as disappointing, sad and shocking.
They speak of her many accomplishments for the school systems she's worked for and admit they are puzzled over the allegations.
Teachers at Shawsville Middle and High School, where East was principal for 4 1/2 years, were shocked when the news broke last week, and formed a support group Monday.
"We all think very highly of her and support her," said Susan Guard, a middle-school teacher who was hired by East.
"I feel very close to her. She was very good to me. She did nothing but give, give, give."
Agnita Angermeier, special-education teacher, agreed. The fact that the crime East is accused of involves money makes the case all the more puzzling.
"If she had a dime, she'd give it away," Angermeier said. "Money never meant a thing to her."
Guard said a group of teachers decided Monday to let East know they were thinking of her.
An art teacher made a card for the teachers to sign. East was not returning phone calls, but Guard said some of the teachers took the card to her house and left it for her.
The two middle-school teachers recalled East's commitment to the school and the community.
"She considered Shawsville people her family," Angermeier said.
Even the prosecutor handling the case in Tennessee talked about East's good qualities.
Michael Mitchell, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, described East as a woman who has made major contributions to her community and her family, and who "supported her mother in her declining years."
"This is a woman of honor," Mitchell said. "I think the story here is: What a jewel."
Mitchell said the investigation is ongoing and he has not decided how to proceed with the case, which is tentatively scheduled for a preliminary hearing Friday. Both Guard and Angermeier remembered East for keeping the school open during severe floods in the 1980s, making sure people had a safe place to stay. At first, she asked teachers who lived close by to stay also, but later sent them home only if they promised to call as soon as they arrived safely.
East often would bring her mother, Nannie East, to school functions.
Several people have mentioned the death of her mother last March as being a possible reason for East's troubles. They say the two lived together and were very close.
Bonnie Sitz, a teacher at Shawsville High School who has stayed in contact with East, said dealing with her mother's death has been traumatic for East.
East and her mother lived in rural Ellett Valley, off a state-maintained gravel road with the closest neighbors acres away.
East grew up there as the youngest of eight children and only left for three years to teach in Bedford and Roanoke, she said in a 1985 interview.
East had stayed close to home for her education, too, taking her bachelor's and master's degrees at Radford College and her doctorate at Virginia Tech.
East had credited her mother as the force behind her children's educations and careers. It wasn't easy on an income that came mainly from raising beef cattle, she said in the 1985 interview.
Sitz stressed the positive effects East had on the Shawsville school. She said East was very enthusiastic and was able to motivate the staff and students.
Stanley Bragg, band director, said he and other teachers who worked under her remember East as a very positive person who did a lot for the school.
"I just think we have the same reaction as Radford does," Bragg said. "I think we're very shocked and surprised."
At Radford High School, Principal James "Buddy" Martin said that because East worked in the central office, teachers and students didn't have daily contact with her. Still, those who knew her find it very sad and very shocking, he said.
"I can assure you . . . there's a lot of sad people here," Martin said.
Last Saturday, when the Radford School Board met to accept East's resignation, that sadness was evident.
"I'm having a hard time getting through this," Board Chairman John McPhail said after the vote. His voice cracking with emotion, he continued, "and this will never take away the positive contribution that Dr. East has made to the school division."
One staff member in the audience wept as the board acted.
People may want to know why East found herself in the circumstances she is in, Martin said, but "it's probably none of our business."
Michael Wright, superintendent of Radford schools, said Thursday that there was no indication that school property was used to make counterfeit bills.
The board has not set a schedule for advertising for East's replacement, he said.
Wright emphasized last week that the board acted at East's request to accept her resignation. Wright called East's contributions "significant and important."
George Adams, a Secret Service agent based in Nashville, said counterfeiting by using a color copier is not that common. A professional counterfeiter probably would use offset printing, he said.
U.S. currency is printed on almost 100 percent cloth, or rag bond. It's not easily copied, but counterfeiters can come close.
A store clerk detected the counterfeit money by using a pen that emits a special kind of color if the bill is fake.
There are other, more reliable means to determine if a bill is counterfeit, Adams said.
Larger bills - such as $20s, $50s and $100s - printed since 1990 have a visible security strip with the denomination amount and the imprint "U.S.A.," he said. There also is microprinting around the face that helps to discourage the attempts at office-machine copies.
Capt. Dennis Adams at the Pigeon Forge Police Department said the Belz Factory Outlet World, where the counterfeit bills were passed, has about 50 shops. Neither he nor the Secret Service agent was sure whether the bills were passed at different stores.
But both said counterfeiting isn't a large problem either in Pigeon Forge or Knoxville.
Police say East was charged after five fake bills were passed at Belz Factory Outlet World and an attempt was made to pass a sixth one.
Adams said 43 other bills were found in East's possession.