One charge dropped against Kentucky high school principal. Prosecutor admits mistake.

One of two criminal charges have been dropped against a McCracken County High School principal who is charged with allegedly not reporting the abuse of his students.

A county prosecutor announced Friday that he incorrectly interpreted the law in charging two school district leaders with official misconduct.

Michael Ceglinski, principal of McCracken County High School in Western Kentucky, was suspended with pay and charged with two misdemeanors after allegedly not reporting abuse of his students, according to court records.

McCracken County Attorney Sam Clymer said in a statement posted on WPSD’s website Friday that he filed an order dismissing the charge of second-degree official misconduct that had been brought against Ceglinski and Director of Pupil Personnel Brian Bowland.

The charge of failure to report child abuse remains against Ceglinski, Clymer said.

Bowland had been charged only with second-degree official misconduct, so he is no longer facing any criminal charges, Clymer said.

Clymer explained that the charges of second-degree official misconduct against both Ceglinski and Bowland “were based upon their ...involvement in allegedly violating state law by causing an internal investigation to be conducted by school personnel into an allegation of criminal activity by a student against another student rather than immediately reporting the alleged criminal activity to law enforcement.“

Clymer said he was initially confident that the facts of the case supported issuing a charge of second-degree official misconduct against both men. But he said further research that he completed Thursday night caused him to look at the meaning of state law differently “and have led me to the conclusion that the previously accepted interpretation of that statute was not correct.”

Jeremy Smith, Ceglinski’s lawyer, previously told WKMS that the charges were “nonsensical” and “illogical.”

Since the beginning of the year, three high school employees have been investigated by the McCracken County Sheriff’s Office, which charged Ceglinski.

The bass fishing coach at the high school was charged with first-degree sexual abuse on Feb. 14, and a teacher was charged last week with harassing communications after a former student said he had asked them for a nude photograph.

Another employee also is under investigation for inappropriate communication, the Herald-Leader has reported.

In addition, the McCracken Sheriff’s office has said an 18-year-old student was charged with inappropriate sexual contact and possessing illegal sexual images of an underage student.

This story was originally published March 1, 2019 at 5:08 PM.