A New York City school principal may be terminated after she had a lesbian affair with her assistant vice principal, gave her a terrible job performance review, then claimed to have received death threats from the woman.
Crystal Simmons (pictured above), who was the founding principal of Harlem's famed Academy for Social Action (ASA) desperately sought the help of school administrators when former lover and assistant principal Candy Jones threatened to murder her.
According to a department spokesperson, Simmons admitted to having sex with Jones at the school and during school hours. The source told the New York Daily News, "In a setting where the focus is supposed to be on student learning, conduct like this is simply unacceptable," she said.
The middle and high school students seem to be rallying around their principal. One 10th grader contends that Simmons' main mission is college for everybody. "We want her back," 16-year-old Kirsis Betances from the Bronx told the Daily News. "She showed she cared for everyone. ...I told my daddy I'm leaving the school if she's not there, and my daddy agrees with me."
Apparently when interrogated by school officials, the former lovers could not even agree on how long they actually dated. Jones also contended that the couple parted ways after she vacationed with another woman in July of last year.
After the couple broke up last year in September, Jones claimed that Simmons maintained a log about her job performance. It got nasty between the two women when Simmons gave Jones a bad review in June, then asked her to resign. Jones insisted that Simmons had it in for her. On the other hand, Simmons claims that Jones deserved the evaluation she received because she had become derelict in performing her duties.
Reportedly, an investigative report revealed that Jones admitted to staffer Chante Alexander that she would kill the principal if she got fired. Alexander recounted Jones told her "it was easy to purchase a gun down south" and that her father "had already purchased one," the report read.
Jones refuted Alexander's claims and told investigators she was only joking about the entire matter and that she was actually comparing her situation with Simmons to an article involving a female corrections officer who gunned down her lover.
Apparently, the couple's trysts were not kept as tightly under wraps as they thought. One former teacher, Daniel Ryan, 50, said the pair's affair was well known. "Everybody knew they were an item for a long time," he admitted.
Jones has been temporarily transferred to the High School for Law and Public Safety in Queens serving as a teacher because she lacked tenure as an assistant principal.
Simmons will begin her job transfer at another yet unnamed school as an assistant principal because she lacked tenure as a principal. The educator, who was held in such high regard by her students and who was often referred to as a "second mother" is now, along with Jones, awaiting the outcome of a disciplinary process.