EASTPOINTE (WXYZ) — Students walked out of Eastpointe High School Thursday afternoon to protest the controversial departure of Principal Asenath Jones.
"This principal was devoted to this school and they did not want her," said 8th grader Amelia Ritter, who attended board meetings in support of Jones.
On March 30, following the superintendent's recommendation, the board adopted a resolution to consider not renewing the principal's contract.
The reasons to not renew the contract included "failure to properly address and handle student and personnel matters, failure to comply with board of education policies and administrative processes."
District officials said Jones submitted her resignation on Friday. Jones then went before the board during public comment Monday to address the resolution to not renew her contract.
"I do believe that I have not been given due process," Jones told the board, adding that she was never told she wasn't doing a good job or given an opportunity to make a change.
Jones suggested that the steps being made to oust her stemmed from her reporting a hostile work environment earlier this year.
District officials deny that the process to not renew her contract had anything to do with that claim.
Board President Jon Gruenberg said, "Job performance was an issue before the unsubstantiated claim of a hostile work environment was made in January and continued being an issue after the claim."
Superintendent Christina Gibson applauded the relationship Jones has with students but said that the position of principal requires much more than the ability to connect with the children.
"Mrs. Jones is an amazing human being who cared deeply for children and one of the great skills she had is building relationships with children and with staff," she said. "But we would be remiss if we didn't say that the principalship is about all components of the work. And there are other aspects to being a leader in public education that we cannot discuss publicly as a school district about an individual employees performance."
