
NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The New Hanover County Board of Education is refusing to answer questions about hiring Ronald Wells Gulledge as the Dean of Students at Ashley High School. Members of the elected board have claimed the school district’s attorney, Wayne Bullard, has instructed them not to discuss the matter. The refusal comes after new information came to light concerning what the board knew about comments made by Gulledge about a sexual assault victim.
In late June, Gulledge gave several interviews saying he had accepted an offer from the administration of Ashley High School to take over coaching duties from Web Guthrie. But Gulledge wasn’t officially hired until Aug. 17, after the Board of Education voted to approve his position as Dean of Students along with a coaching contract.
That job, according to New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) spokeswoman Valita Quattlebaum, is described as providing “proactive leadership to engage all stakeholders in the delivery of programs and services to support the students’ academic achievement, personal and social development. The dean of students works cooperatively with the principal, counselor, nurse, staff, students and parents towards a positive school climate.”
A recent letter from Bullard and Quattlebaum revealed that – at the time of Gulledge’s hire – the Board had been made aware of comments Gulledge had made to a reporter concerning an incident at the East Coast Invitational Basketball Tournament.
The East Coast Invitational incident
That incident, first reported in a story on June 5, involved Sarah Johnson, a Hoggard student. Johnson had been sexually assaulted by another Hoggard student off campus. Her assailant had been moved to another school and prohibited by two court orders from coming into contact with her.
However, when Sarah Johnson attended the tournament in Jacksonville to watch her brother Xavier play, her assailant was also in attendance, violating those court orders. When tournament officials discovered this, Johnson was detained in a bathroom while her assailant was allowed to leave.
As the director of the tournament, Gulledge said that the incident was handled badly “by pretty much everyone,” but denied direct responsibility when talking to a reporter.
The East Coast Invitational incident, as reported, was not enough to deter Ashley from making Gulledge an offer. But according to Bullard and Quattlebaum’s letter, both the Board of Education and administration – including Superintendent Dr. Tim Markley and Deputy Superintendent and Title IX Coordinator Dr. Rick Holliday – were aware of further comments made by Gulledge.
Those comments appeared as follows, in a draft of the June 5 article:
- He at first claimed not to remember the incident, but then in conversation mentioned the schools and students by name. He also said/claimed the family had deliberately gone to the tournament just to force a legal issue.
- He said, “if that little girl had just stayed home and watched ‘Days of Our Lives’ this (expletive) wouldn’t have happened.”
- He also said, “look, these boys ain’t saints, you know. But there’s probably two sides to this story. I don’t know if there was a trial or what, but I mean the boy was probably exonerated, so I feel bad for him.”
- “I mean, he was a star athlete. So, girls can be a certain way. But, I mean, I guess I feel bad for her then, if it really wasn’t her fault.”
Gulledge’s comments were not included in the article published, since Gulledge had requested – after the interview – that they be considered off the record. However, they were included in a draft of the article.
How the article draft made its way to the Board, administrators
Prior to publishing the story, a draft of the article was shared with Sarah Johnson’s father, Randy Johnson; the draft was shared out of concern, since the article shared private details about Sarah’s life as well as details of an ongoing investigation initiated by Randy Johnson that included sensitive information about his employer.

Johnson later shared the draft with Board of Education in emails dated Aug. 6; those emails included one to Vice Chairwoman Jeannette Nichols, who forwarded the email to Markley, Holliday and Bullard. At the time, no one from the Board of Education or NHCS administration made any inquiries to Port City Daily about Gulledge’s comments.
Then, after a recent story about how Sarah Johnson’s story had changed Title IX training at New Hanover County Schools, Bullard and Quattlebaum wrote a “letter of concern,” claiming that coverage of the Johnson incident had been biased and unethical.
The letter included a copy of draft article – with Gulledge’s comments – as evidence of collaboration with Randy Johnson and bias in his favor. The letter of concern cited this bias as the reason Markley and Holliday had continued to refuse comment on the story over the previous months.
“Finally, the district is aware of an email that shows Mr. (Ben) Schachtman shared the contents of his previous story with the parent of Sarah Johnson while he was preparing it for publication and collaborated with Mr. Johnson on the contents of the story without offering the same opportunity to the NHCS. We have attached the email that verifies this as factual. This causes us great concern as to whether there is bias in favor of one side. The code of ethics in journalism calls for reporters to be fair and unbiased in reporting. That is why Drs. Markley and Holliday will not discuss this matter with him,” Bullard and Quattlebaum wrote in their letter.
It should be noted that a reporter met at length with Drs. Holliday and Markley for the initial story, though both made very limited comment and would not speak to specifics.
Board members refuse to answer questions
After the letter from Bullard and Quattlebaum made it clear that the Board of Education and the administration had been aware of Gulledge’s comment prior to his official hiring, questions about the incident were emailed to the Board. Board members were asked, as elected officials, if Gulledge’s comments impacted their vote.
When there was no response, phone calls were made to individual members, including David Wortman, Lisa Estep, and Bruce Shell. None of the calls were answered or returned. Phone calls were also placed to Gulledge, but he did not respond.
Then, Board member Janice Cavenaugh replied, asking for specifics about the concern. After being given a summary of the situation, and asked if it had been given any consideration in Gulledge’s hiring, Cavenaugh responded in an email:
“I have received instruction from our attorney. He said that any correspondence should be from him or the chairman. He instructed Board members not to respond. I am sorry that I cannot address the matter,” Cavenaugh wrote.
Several emails and calls were made to Board Chairman Edward Higgins, identified as the appropriate contact for correspondence on the issue. Higgins never responded.
Responses from NHCS Attorney Wayne Bullard
After several days of silence, Bullard responded on behalf of the Board.
“You have sent emails to various members of the New Hanover County Board of Education recently, requesting them to contact you or for them to provide information pertaining to the Johnson matter. The Board has asked that I prepare a single response on behalf of the Board. The next opportunity I will have to meet with the Board Members is at the Board’s regular monthly meeting December 5th. I will provide the Board’s response after that. If you have any additional inquiries about this matter, the Board has asked that you send them to me in writing,” Bullard wrote.
Bullard denied that the elected officials of the Board of Education were refusing to comment and did not say why, according to Cavenaugh, he had instructed them not comment.
Bullard also declined to directly answer questions about whether or not Gulledge’s comments had been considered before Gulledge’s hiring.
Instead, Bullard wrote, “(t)he Board will need to review some documentation prior to responding. The Board will discuss your question in Closed Session at its next regular meeting on Tuesday, December 5th since it involves a student matter and a personnel matter. You will receive the Board’s response in a timely manner shortly after the meeting. However, please be aware that personnel laws may limit the information the Board can provide concerning the application and hiring of an employee.”
The following day Bullard wrote to say he would be “leaving the office after lunch today and will not return until December 5th,” adding “if you have any questions for the Board about this matter, please send them to Dr. Markley.”
Markley did not return phone calls about this matter. Valita Quattlebaum was emailed, asking for a comment from Markley; Quattlebaum responded, “Mr. Bullard will respond to your questions when he returns as stated in his email.”
Update: The Board of Education was repeatedly asked if they were aware of Gulledge’s comments, prior to their vote to hire him. On Wednesday, Dec. 6, Bullard issued a one-word response to that question: “No.”
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