Messages released

School District provides records related to Wendt firing.

FAYETTEVILLE — The School District on Friday released redacted records, mostly text messages, relating to former Superintendent Matthew Wendt’s firing.

School District employee Shae Newman made a sexual harassment complaint against Wendt in March. Newman worked as a receptionist in the district’s administration office with Wendt during the six months they had a personal relationship.

The records released were from the district’s internal investigation of the complaint. The district gathered information and evidence from all available sources to provide the most complete and comprehensive report possible to the School Board, said Chris Lawson, general counsel for the School District.

Unlike a criminal investigation, this type of confidential investigation is done without subpoena power, Lawson said.

The information included handwritten interviews with employees, audio and video recordings at the office, phone records and text messages made available by the parties involved.

AT& T cellphone call logs included in the records released show Wendt and Newman exchanged nearly 12,500 text messages and 936 cellphone calls between Sept. 22, 2017, and March 9. This equates to roughly 74 text messages, six calls and nearly an hour on the phone per day.

The log lists Wendt as the caller 60 percent of the time and Newman the other 40.

Screenshots of text messages provided by Newman are included in the records. Many are not dated, but seem to span the months of their relationship. No copies of text messages were provided by Wendt.

A summary of a timeline made during the district’s investigation includes information from three “texts saved to Matt’ s phone” and “texts Matt remembers.”

The texts provided by Newman display long messages from Wendt, many of which use demeaning and vulgar language toward Newman and explain his desire to continue a relationship with her.

Most of Newman’s responses are short and clearly express her desire for their personal relationship to be over and for Wendt to leave her alone. She didn’t want it to be over the whole time but tried to call it off at least once every month, she states in one text.

Wendt makes references to Newman’s job several times. He threatened to call a board meeting targeted at her concerning employee dress code, offered to help her get a teaching job and told her to get out of his professional life, according to the text messages.

The investigation’s summary says the texts Wendt had in his possession depicted Newman’s happiness in their relationship. There’s no reference to when the texts were sent. The summary mentions a photo of Thailand sent March 6 from Newman to Wendt with the message “honeymoon or vacation.”

Wendt spent several thousand dollars on Newman, according to the summary timeline and the text messages.

Newman sued the School District in July to prevent the release of the records under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Circuit Judge Tom Cooper ordered Aug. 17 the public’s interest outweighed her right to privacy. Cooper said the identities of Newman’s immediate family and some others not directly involved should be redacted.

Newman’s lawyer, Suzanne Clark, said Friday her client specifically wanted the “vile, disgusting text messages Wendt sent to her” to remain private in order to protect her children — who go to Fayetteville schools — from dealing with them.

Wendt’s lawyer Randy Coleman said Friday the district did nothing to authenticate a lot of the information released.

“We were not a party to

that action,” Coleman said about the FOIA lawsuit. “Dr. Wendt has been victimized by very one-sided releases in this without people stopping to think there is another side of the story.”

The School Board unanimously voted to terminate Wendt’s contract June 18. Wendt filed a lawsuit Aug. 7 claiming Newman intentionally and improperly interfered with the business expectancy between Wendt and his employer and her actions led to his termination.

The School Board cited breach of contract by violating

district policy in firing Wendt. Wendt violated policy through his derogatory and offensive conduct and communication with a female subordinate employee, Susan Kendall, the school board’s legal counsel, said after the firing.

Forms of sexual harassment include, according to the policy: “uninvited letters, telephone calls, digital transmission or materials of a sexual nature.”

Wendt