ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996               TAG: 9606260036
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER 

EX-PRINCIPAL TO LEAVE, DESPITE HIS ACQUITTAL ROANOKE SCHOOLS STILL MAY FACE LAWSUIT, HE SAYS

Michael McIntosh, who lost his job as principal of Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy after being acquitted of a charge of striking a student in April, has resigned under pressure from the Roanoke school system.

McIntosh said Tuesday he did ``the professional thing'' and submitted his resignation after he was told his contract would not be renewed.

But he said he still might go to court to challenge the loss of his job because he believes he should have been reinstated after an assault and battery charge against him was dismissed.

McIntosh, 35, was suspended from his job at the Taylor Academy after being charged with hitting a student.

After McIntosh was acquitted in Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Superintendent Wayne Harris reassigned him as an administrator to work with the principals of two magnet schools, Lincoln Terrace Saturn Network Elementary and Addison Aerospace Middle.

``Given all of the circumstances, I felt it was untenable for him to go back to the school,'' Harris said then. "I looked at all the issues surrounding the incident. I felt that what we have to have is the most stable and uneventful learning environment there we can."

Harris said this week he understands that McIntosh resigned because he is taking a job in North Carolina, where he has lived. But McIntosh, who commuted to Roanoke from North Carolina, said Tuesday he hasn't decided what he will do.

The Virginia Education Association said earlier it probably would go to court to help McIntosh try to get back his principal's job.

Gary Waldo, executive director of the Roanoke Education Association, said recently that McIntosh's case is symptomatic of a broader pattern in which some Roanoke school administrators presume that teachers are guilty whenever students and parents file complaints about discipline.

"The message is being sent out that students are always right and teachers are always wrong," Waldo said. The Roanoke Education Association is an affiliate of the Virginia Education Association.

Waldo said he believes school officials might have wanted to move McIntosh out of the principal's post because there has been conflict between him and central office administrators on budget and equipment issues at the alternative school.

School officials praised McIntosh when he was hired two years ago, Waldo said, and most staff members at the alternative school think he has done a good job.

The principal and teachers at the alternative school must deal with more severe discipline problems and pressures than those at regular schools, Waldo said. Some students at the school are disruptive and violent; some have been in jails or detention homes, he said.

McIntosh came to Roanoke from Danville, where he was an administrator and teacher in an alternative school. He also has worked in similar programs in Greensboro-Guilford County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg County in North Carolina.

LENGTH: Medium:   61 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  (headshot) McIntosh.