TCA Principal Fully Reinstated After Bomb Squad Incident

After a week on the sidelines, the principal of The Classical Academy will be back at school Monday.

The TCA board fully reinstated Hugh DiPretore on Friday. He was placed on administrative leave following an incident last Thursday when a bomb squad was called to campus. An unidentified teenager was arrested for possessing an incendiary device. School leaders said that consisted of two small propane tanks and a small bottle of flammable liquid.

No one was hurt in the incident, and the call was never made by police to evacuate the school. Controversy erupted after school leaders disclosed that the questionable materials were discovered Monday.

The board said they interviewed police and campus security experts from School District 20 before making reinstating DiPretore.

“We don’t want to lose any of our leadership at any point, and I think we effectively called his administrative leave a time out in terms of being able to gather more information,” said Chris Leland, chairman of the school board.

The school board also wanted to take a look at the police report on the incident before allowing DiPretore to return. Parents and teachers called the decision a victory for the school.

“He’s a great man, trustworthy,” said Janelle Doole, a TCA parent. “He would do anything for the kids, and we just really want him back.”

“Knowing Mr. D., he wouldn’t lose his job, and people would have been very upset if he had lost his job,” said Brandon Anderson, a senior at the school.

A petition was also started by students to show the board how much support DiPretore had on campus.

But, Leland said the board didn’t want to make an emotional decision based on the principal’s popularity. He said the unanimous decision by the board was an objective one.

“There are a lot of security protocols to review, communication protocols to review and change in many ways,” said Leland. “We need to do things better than we did.”

The incident did cost one TCA leader his job. Dr. David Bohn, the school’s president, resigned last week.