GREENWOOD COUNTY, SC - The former high school cheerleading coach accused of helping her students get alcohol and have sex is now cooperating with investigators - and she says the principal at Ware Shoals knew what was going on.
News 10 has also learned the principal could get her job back at the high school.
Jill Moore, a former cheerleading coach and the center of the Ware Shoals High School sex scandal makes a statement investigators say ties everything together.
"Everybody was saying 'Jill said this, Jill said that,' it was finally nice to have Jill in the room to tell us what Jill said," Chief Deputy Mike Frederick told News 10.
Frederick says this past Sunday the 28-year-old told him that last November she had met with principal Jane Blackwell about a recent trip she took with students to a Clemson game. It involved alcohol.
Blackwell was arrested in January and charged with obstruction of justice. Frederick says she still denies knowing anything about the incident, or about the allegations that Moore hooked up one of her cheerleaders with a national guardsman to have sex.
"Our contention is it was actually as important if not more important that Blackwell had this information and A) didn't act appropriately didn't contact law enforcement and B) lied to law enforcement," said Frederick.
Frederick says their investigation also found potential wrongdoing on the part of school district officials. The State Law Enforcement Division has taken over.
SLED investigators spent the afternoon at the Ware Shoals 51 School District building executing a search warrant and taking things from the superintendent's office.
It's still unknown if more people will be charged in the scandal.
It'll be months before Moore or Blackwell's cases go to court, but it could be days before the school board gives the suspended principal her job back.
This Friday there's a public hearing to let Blackwell defend herself.
Anyone can attend, but it's made clear no one but the board and Blackwell are welcomed to talk.
The school district declined to talk to News 10, and calls to both Moore's and Blackwell's attorneys were not returned.
WIS has also learned of parents planning to sue the district in the next month for not protecting their children.
Reported by Angie Goff
Posted 11:23pm by Logan Smith
