Bay High principal resigns after shoplifting charges, school board announces

HANCOCK COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) - Friday afternoon, the Bay-Waveland School District announced the school board has accepted the resignation of Dr. Amy Yarborough Necaise from her employment as principal of Bay High School.

The resignation comes after Necaise was accused of stealing from Walmart in Hancock County on multiple occasions.

Necaise is facing misdemeanor shoplifting charges for three different store visits in August, totaling $200.15 worth of stolen merchandise.

The Bay-Waveland School District held a special meeting Friday, called by the Board of Trustees, where they accepted Necaise’s resignation.

“While the district does not intend to comment on the ongoing criminal matters concerning Dr. Necaise, we believe that it is in the best interest of student achievement to accept this resignation and continue great progress in the school district,” the district said in a press release Friday.

School Board President Casey Favre spoke on the situation in the press release.

“The community has been quite insistent that the school board take action related to Dr. Necaise’s employment with Bay-Waveland Schools, and the authority to take such action does not lie with the school board,” Favre said. “Licensed educators are afforded exceptional rights as it relates to their employment under Mississippi’s Education Employment Procedures Law. To protect the rights afforded to educators, the school board must remain unbiased and ready to hear an employee’s case should a grievance be filed.  Therefore, the school board is only in a position to provide comments on these matters after board action has been taken, as is the case today.”

Favre also said other factors made the situation complex.

“What made this situation increasingly more difficult was the fact that the alleged conduct occurred off of school property, and school officials were not in any position to conduct their own, internal investigation related to the allegations,” Favre said. “So while community dissention was a consideration, we could not allow public pressure to interfere with the statutory rights of our employees, as we believe that everyone is entitled to due process of law.”

A position for the Bay High School principal is posted on the Bay-Waveland School District’s website.

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