This is a black eye for Orcutt Academy, a charter school. Since its inception, OA has had a reputation for just focusing on the high end kids and pawning off the difficult students onto the public high schools, so one has to wonder about their commitment to educate all students?

This $75,000 taxpayer-funded settlement was caused by the poor judgement of the adults, and teacher Ty Fredriks, Principal Rhett Carter and Assistant Superintendent Susan Salucci all have egg on their face. The charter schools were suppossed to be better than this.

Perhaps most troubling is the fact that the coverup of this incident continues, and the Orcutt School District refuses to honor a public records act request to release the video footage which would either confirm or deny the districts official version of events, but, based on the generous giveaway of our money, I think we can all read between the lines on what happened here.

Orcutt Academy ought to be ashamed of itself.