YPSILANTI, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Ypsilanti community is rallying around a choir director who was put on leave one day after doing an interview with 7 Action News.
Crystal Harding told us she had paid a videographer $700 upfront to create a video of her students' concerts. The video was to help her apply for a grant and secure funding for a sound system.
Harding said the owner of IDefine Progress stopped taking her calls. After two months of waiting, she reached out to 7 Action News.
The day after our story aired, the owner of the company delivered the video, but something else happened: Harding was placed on "paid non-disciplinary administrative leave" by the Ypsilanti Community School District.
In a letter to us, the district said, "This is standard practice when a professional school employee is investigated. This leave is unrelated to any media contacts Ms. Harding may have had or sought to have had."
They did not specify why Harding was being investigated.
The district went on to say Harding is "valued and appreciated" as the choir director.
"Every time I was in the choir, I felt like I wasn't at school. I felt like I was somewhere I wanted to be," said Myles McClain, a graduate of Ypsilanti High School.
McClain said Harding had a way with her students that made her a highly effective educator.
"She let us voice our opinions, she let us be us, and that is the greatest feeling that anyone can ever feel in their life," McClain said.
According to Harding's friends and daughter, they haven't heard why she was placed on leave.
"It just seems very unjust and unfair. We are not receiving any answers," Crystal Harding's daughter Marissa said.
The district said the action cannot be disciplinary without "due process" and emphasized it had nothing to do with our story.
"All she wants is to be back before the school year ends. There was an award given out to the first person who got a choir scholarship that she should have given out," said Christy Bulloch, whose daughter is a former student of Harding's.
On Monday at a school board meeting, dozens spoke on Harding's behalf including Ypsilanti Mayor Nicole Brown.
"I attended one of the concerts in February and I was incredibly moved, to tears actually by seeing our students really convey the need and the lack in our district," Brown said.
She went on to call Harding irreplaceable and said the community and the kids need her.
"If your mayor is coming out and saying this about a member of your community and a teacher and you're not listening as the administration, as the board, that's a problem," Bulloch said.
According to Harding's colleagues and friends, she's a quarter-finalist for the 2024 Grammy Music Educator of the Year Award.
Harding has been with the district for more than 30 years.
They hope the investigation won't affect her chances.
The district did not specify how long the investigation would take.
Letter Regarding Ms. Harding - May 2023.Docx by WXYZ-TV Detroit on Scribd
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