MS principal charged in shoplifting cases set to resign after policy violation, officials confirm

Bay High School Principal Amy Yarborough Necaise agreed to resign Friday, one day after a Sun Herald report about how she had been arrested on two more misdemeanor charges of shoplifting.

Necaise’s resignation came after she failed to tell the Bay Waveland School District she had been arrested on the two additional misdemeanor charges Tuesday

Bay Waveland School Superintendent Sandra Reed said Necaise plans to retire.

“Effective immediately, the BWSD Board of Trustees approved the resignation with intent to retire of Dr. Amy Necaise,” Reed said after the meeting Friday. “Her accomplishments at Bay High School speak for themselves. I wish her well in future endeavors.”

Necaise was first arrested for shoplifting a few days after her alleged Aug. 20 theft of $123 in items from the Waveland Walmart on U.S. 90.

Walmart filed additional affidavits against the longtime principal this week, Waveland Police Mike Prendergast said, and Necaise surrendered at the Police Department on Tuesday.

Necaise now stands accused of shoplifting nearly $200 in items from the Waveland Walmart while using the self-checkout line at the store on three separate occasions in August.

Necaise has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The Bay Waveland School District started advertising earlier this week for the position of Bay High School principal, a position Necaise had held since 2013.

The superintendent said the position was opening because Necaise had been offered a job in a newly created position as an academic strategist for the school district.

At the time of the interview early in the day Thursday, Reed did not know Necaise had been arrested on the two additional offenses Tuesday.

School district policy requires employees to report if they are arrested on any misdemeanor felony offense within 24 hours of the arrest.

Necaise failed to do so.

School Board president Casey Farve released a statement addressing why the Board had not yet acted in the matter.

“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,.” Farve 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.”

In addition, Farve said the School District was in a difficult situation because they could not conduct their own investigation into the criminal allegations against Necaise because the alleged crimes occurred of campus.

“So, while community dissension was a consideration, we could not allow public pressure to interfere with the statutory rights of our employee,” his statement said, “as we believe that everyone is entitled to due process of law.”