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Beverly Campbell (LinkedIn photo)
Update, 12:10 p.m. Wednesday: Federal Judge Victoria Roberts sentenced ex-Detroit school principal Beverly Campbell to 15 months in prison, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Original article, Wednesday morning:
As Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press points out, there's finally an ex-Detroit principal involved in the school district's kickback scandal that is admitting wrongdoing, and unlike some others, isn't claiming to have stolen money from the school district to benefit students or tried to minimize the crime.
Ex-Detroit principal Beverly Campbell, 67, in a letter to a federal judge dated Aug. 1, says: "The actions which brings me before you were not a mistake, they were wrong. I offer my sincere apologies to my student and their parents, the Detroit Public Schools and to my family."
Campbell, the former principal at Rosa Parks School and Greenfield Union Elementary-Middle School, is accused of taking about $50,000 in kickbacks. She is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday at 11 a.m. at the U.S. District Courthouse on Lafayette Blvd. in Detroit.
The scheme centered around school vendor Norman Shy, 74, of Franklin, who was charged with giving a total of about $900,000 in kickbacks to Campbell, 11 other principals and one administrator to sign fake invoices for $2.7 million in undelivered equipment. Shy was sentenced to five years in prison.
Campbell is the 11 principal to be sentenced, Baldas reports.
Baldas writes that unlike the others who have been sentenced, "Campbell has conceded that she looked out for her own interests over those of her students, and that, despite her age, her crime warrants a prison sentence. The other principals called their actions mistakes. One called himself a 'hero,' and several fought to stay out of prison."
Campbell writes in the letter: "I wish to say from the start that I accept full responsibility and accountability for my violation of the trust bestowed upon me. . . . I offer no excuses, rationale, nor justification for my actions, because there are none."
A Sept. 28 sentencing memorandum filed by her attorney Nancy L. McGunn of the Federal Defender Office says:
Ms. Campbell struggles to put into words how or why she took money, how or why she took part in Norman Shy’s scheme. She sought out and has participated in mental health treatment in attempt to understand how this occurred. She has lived under immense stress.
The memo asks that she be sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
Other ex-principals haven't shown as much character as Campbell.
Ex-Principal Ronnie Sims, who led Fleming Elementary and Brenda Scott Middle School, was sentenced in September to 15 months in prison for receiving nearly $59,000 in kickbacks. He told the judge he was bullied into going along with Shy's crooked scheme.
"I was kind of pressured. There were a couple of people pressuring principals" to use Shy. And if you didn't use Shy, "they just acted like you don't exist," Sims said, claiming he would be left out of conversations or forced to sit alone at a table on certain occasions, the Freep reported.
Former Detroit Public Schools administrator Clara Flowers, who got $324,785 in kickbacks, the biggest offender aside from Shy, was sentenced to three years in prison. She tried to minimize her crime by saying she spent some of the stolen money on the children.
And ex-Spain Elementary School Principal Ronald Alexander, who was sentenced to one year in prison for getting $23,000 in bribes, pleaded with U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts to keep him out of prison. He called himself a "hero" for all he had done for the students.
“I have given my entire life to this school. ... I have done nothing but serve God, your honor. I don’t deserve it,” Alexander said.
While it may be a legal ploy by Campbell to get sympathy from the judge by being so honest, it certainly establishes a much better lesson for students: When you've done something wrong, admit it and don't deliver a lot of b.s.
