Two longtime Palm Beach County principals removed from the job, replaced. What happened?

School board members have removed two Palm Beach County middle school principals from their positions after one was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge and the other was videotaped yelling at a woman and using profanities in the school parking lot.

Watson B. Duncan Middle Principal ​​Phillip D'Amico, 56, was arrested at his home March 29 after his wife told police he threw a picture frame at her and kicked her during an argument. The charges were dropped.

The school district is also investigating Lake Worth Middle Principal Michael Williams, 52, after a video surfaced of him using racist slurs and yelling at a woman in the school’s parking lot around March 16.

Both men were immediately removed from their jobs and remain under investigation. Last week, the school board approved interim principals for both schools: Assistant Principal Milranda Vereen will lead Watson B. Duncan and Dionne Breaux, an instructional support team leader from the district’s regional office, will step in at Lake Worth Middle.

The replacement of both principals, neither of whom are accused of improper conduct with students, show how quickly schools can remove employees who are involved in incidents or arrested outside school. In D’Amico’s case, the charge against him had been dropped for a week when the school board approved Vereen’s promotion.

More from the education desk: Why 2,800 seniors in Palm Beach County schools waiting to see if they'll graduate in weeks

Latest on the budget: School board pauses talks on a new Riviera Beach high school due to expanded vouchers

New schools: Which students will attend Garcia High, West Boynton Middle? School Board OKs final maps

Duncan principal arrested, then battery charge was dropped. What happened?

D’Amico’s wife of 30 years, Barbara, called 911 on the evening of March 29, arrest records show.

When Jupiter police arrived at the couple’s home south of Tequesta Road, she told officers he’d thrown a picture frame at her, shattering the glass and kicked her in the leg during an argument about “infidelity and martial (sic) matters,” the report says.

Barbara D’Amico said she was afraid to be with her husband that night.

D’Amico told officers he’d thrown something at the picture frame but then said he’d slammed the door and the frame fell from the wall. He denied kicking his wife, the arrest report shows.

D’Amico told officers she didn’t want her husband arrested.

He was arrested, however, and charged with simple battery, but the charge was dismissed two weeks later on April 12. Prosecutors dropped the charges because of “insufficient evidence” due to an “uncooperative witness,” court records show.

D’Amico, who has been the principal at Duncan in Palm Beach Gardens since 2014, was reassigned to a job where he does not have contact with students.

District representatives said they could not comment on how the investigation will proceed since the charge against D’Amico was dropped.

What led to angry confrontation between woman and Lake Worth Middle principal?

A video surfaced around March 16 of an angry encounter between Williams and a woman in the Lake Worth Middle parking lot near 10th Avenue North and west of Interstate 95.

Williams appears to call the woman the N-word, as well as a “Hispanic b****,” in the short video published by WPEC-CBS 12 News.

A woman in the car who is taking the video tells Williams that he has to pay to fix her car, to which he responds that he’s not going to pay for a “m*****f****** thing.”

The video was apparently taken after Williams and the woman were involved in a minor traffic collision, according to district staff.

WPEC-12 did not identify the woman who took the video or report what led up to the confrontation.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office did not have any report of the traffic violation or ensuing confrontation.

Williams, who has been the principal at Lake Worth Middle since 2015, was reassigned to a job where he does not have contact with students.

District policies require employees to report arrests. What happens next?

While the school district has explicit policies that govern how employees can be suspended or fired, there’s no official guidance that outlines what happens after an employee is arrested and how it’s determined whether they’re removed from their job.

If school district employees are arrested or charged with a crime, they are required to report it to their supervisor within 48 hours of the arrest. The supervisor then has 24 hours to forward that report to their higher-ups. The board policy does not require that teachers be removed from the classroom after an arrest, although a representative for the school district said supervisors open an internal investigation following the arrest of an employee.

Often, school principals notify parents when a teacher is removed from the classroom and under investigation for improper conduct.

But the district’s Chief of Schools Ed Tierney notified Duncan parents of D’Amico’s arrest on March 30, telling them he had been reassigned to a job where he would not have contact with students.

Want more education news? Sign up for ourExtra Credit weekly newsletter, delivered every Friday!

Tierney wrote to parents that the battery charge was “in no way related to the campus of Watson B. Duncan Middle School.”

In Williams’ case, regional superintendent Peter Licata sent a note to parents March 16 with few details on the incident.

“I'm reaching out to make you aware that an incident involving Principal Michael Williams is now under investigation,” he wrote.

“While it is not the District's practice to share details of an open internal investigation, we will say that a thorough inquiry into this isolated incident is underway. The District took immediate action when we became aware of the situation.”

School district staff confirmed that the “incident” Licata referred to in the note was the parking lot confrontation.

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work, subscribe today!

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Duncan, Lake Worth Middle school principals removed after arrest, video