Roughly 10 months ago, The Piney Woods School in Rankin County, Mississippi, hired Dr. William Keith Boland as its new chief operating officer. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University in the field of childhood education, film producer and author of children’s books, Boland, 42, came from New York to take a position at the storied institution—the largest and second-oldest historically Black boarding school in the United States.
Only months later, on July 7, the school placed Boland on administrative leave after receiving allegations that the new administrator was engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a student at Piney Woods. The school provided Boland with lodging at the Extended Stay Hotel in Byram, Byram Police Lt. Maurice Kendrick told the Mississippi Free Press. During this time, an internal Piney Woods team began investigating the allegations.
Piney Woods President Will Crossley told the Mississippi Free Press that the police had not been involved in the investigation into allegations against the COO. “We consulted with our board chair, we consulted with outside legal counsel,” Crossley said. But the evidence, he added, hadn’t yet met the standards for mandatory reporting to law enforcement…