Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced today that a man has been charged with pocketing tens of thousands of dollars while he worked as a principal at two schools over the past four years.
“Betraying students, their parents and school administrators is the ultimate failure for those who are the face and voice of a school,” District Attorney Gascón said.
Kyle Douglas (dob 6/6/70) was charged in case BA493366 with one count each of misappropriation of public funds, forgery and grand theft. He pleaded not guilty today and is scheduled to return on April 23 for a preliminary hearing setting in Department 50 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
The case was filed on February 22.
In 2017, while employed as the principal at Inglewood High School, the defendant is accused of negotiating a contract with a company for private use of the school’s parking lot. He allegedly did not receive authorization and profited about $57,000 from the deal.
Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. was instrumental in securing the off-site parking when it made headlines that the Forum was using Inglewood Park Cemetery as a parking lot.
“My parents rest in Inglewood Park Cemetery and I empathize with the concerns of family members. The City has opened its parking structure on Locust Street, its structure adjacent to City Hall for Forum’s 300 employees and the school district has made lots available for patron parking. McCormick’s Ambulance has helped out as well. Effective June 15, 2017, overflow parking will once again be available adjacent to the site of the football stadium. I again salute all the community partners who have stepped forward and ask for patience as the City rebuilds and progresses,” Mayor Butts stated.
(source LAWattsTimes)
Two years later, while working as principal at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Pasadena, Douglas is accused of collecting about $10,000 for a student trip to China and never paying the company that he hired to organize the trip.
The case remains under investigation by the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation.
2UrbanGirls reached out to former Inglewood Unified school board members, D’artagnan Scorza and Dionne Faulk, who served during the time the parking contracts were negotiated and both did not respond by press time.
6 Comments
At least Mr. Douglas was on campus everyday unlike other principals Inglewood high has and currently still have he was one of the best principals they’ve had, hell if you have a complaint you can’t get in touch with anyone at the District, city of Inglewood school district is a joke . Graduating kids without diplomas at their ceremony, taking months to recieve them , not to mention telling parents at the end of the school year their kids don’t have enough credits to graduate, witnessed it all , Inglewood unified is a joke.
I was a parent at the Pasadena school where he was principal and stole from the kids. He talked a lot about how he wanted to do this and that for the students, but nothing positive ever happened. Lots of parents thought he was shifty, but i gave him a chance. Terrible what he did.
Kyle was the worst administrator we’ve ever had. We have had incompetent administrators, self serving ones, hateful and petty ones, but never criminal principals. I worked closely with him and could not understand why he alienated and picked fights with parents and donors. He blamed children when they came for help with a variety of issues. Administrative duties were always neglected. I started to think he had a mental issue, but once the charges came to light it became apparent he was lower than a common thief. I say this because he stole from children – needy children.
Mr Douglas is the best adminstator the district has had for years. The district has had millions taken from other employees, board me embers /district adminstration and some never charged . Its all about who u know. District needs to get rid of teachers who sit and watch things on internet or be personal calls during class time . Get priorities right.
OMG hopefully this comment did not intend for residents to think it is okay for ANY employee to take ANY money intended for education of our young people or our community and keep it for themselves !!!!!!!
Let us hope you were attempting to enlighten the community that by “best” you meant at least he “stole less” not that it was okay to steal if students liked him.
Many residents have in the past shared documents with the DA Office that money was being misused for personal benefit and the elected have either turned a blind eye, claimed they misunderstood when they voted to violate public trust, or sat and chuckled calling the concerned residents names (ie nay-sayers and obstructionists )
—- Let us not forget former Inglewood City Council member Jose Fernandez !!!!
The Centinela Valley High School Superintendent was finally arrested in 2012 only AFTER Pulitzer Prize Investigative Report by the Daily Breeze even when residents had provided documents to the DA office long before alerting the Daily Breeze. Once the story hit the front page all over California the DA claimed they were unaware of any the problem until the Daily Breeze covered the story,,,,,,,
Yep, seems like elected friends went out of their way to proclaim that poor Jose should not be looked down upon. One elected declared that Jose had “only negotiated a lucrative employment contract” and should not be considered guilty of wrong, while another elected who also made money from that school district, claimed he had the “highest and greatest regard”for his mentor .
LETS HOPE that the change GASCON brings to the Office of Public (Non) Integrity Office is that finally those who misappropriate public funds to benefit their relatives, in-laws, friends, girl-friends, former employees or selves end up discovering that stealing, thieving, cheating or any other name they use to glam up “reprioritizing” public funds leads to disgrace, loss of respect, loss of influence, and yes an opportunity to live without publicly funded salaries and pensions!!!
Wow!!!when Gascon coming to Compton; you all are complaining about ten thousand of dollars when the residents of the city of Compton have been complaining about millions; when will the justice come for them.
There needs to be a patty wagon waiting outside the city of Compton!