Chickasaw Police Launch Criminal Investigation Into Former School Principal

Chickasaw police have opened a criminal investigation into Brent Ward, who resigned as a school principal in the Chickasaw City Schools system earlier this month.

Ward was placed on paid administrative leave on Nov. 3 while the district investigated allegations against him. Chickasaw City Schools Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff declined to detail the specific nature of the allegations, saying only that they had been brought to his attention by another employee within the system.

The Chickasaw school board accepted Ward’s resignation on Nov. 13, closing out his tenure with the district. Ward had been hired in May 2013 to lead the system’s combined middle and high school grades. Before joining Chickasaw City Schools, he served as an assistant principal at B.C. Rain High School in Mobile.

Kallhoff said the school system’s internal investigation into the allegations against Ward is a separate matter from the newly opened criminal probe being conducted by Chickasaw police, though both stem from the same underlying concerns raised by district staff.

Chickasaw police have not released further details about the scope of the criminal investigation, and it remains unclear what charges, if any, could result from the probe.

Chickasaw voted in 2012 to form its own city school system, which had previously been part of the Mobile County Public School System.