FRIENDSVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Staff and students at Friendsville Elementary School welcomed back their principal after he was cleared of wrongdoing.
On Monday morning, friends, staff, students and parents gathered around the school to welcome back Principal Stan Painter. Painter was suspended on August 15 after the Blount County Sheriff’s Office received reports of misconduct. Days afterward, BCSO cleared him of wrongdoing after investigating.
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“Everyone who knows Stan loves Stan,” said community member Matt Brown. “Everybody really stood for Stan’s defense.”
He said that the situation was tough on students and teachers, creating negativity in their normally positive and tightly knit community, but ultimately, it had brought them together. He said that these allegations needed to be looked into and that he was glad BCSO took them seriously.
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“It’s a Christian community, and we just wanted to show how much love and support we had,” Brown told 6 News. “There’s been a lot of negativity in our schools, in our communities, all around, and we wanted to be a very positive light in this dark world.”…