DWI: High school band director loses job over Trib crime blotter entry

COLUMBIA, 1/17/11  (Beat Byte) --   A high school band director from Marshfield, Missouri resigned after a school-sponsored trip to Columbia in December ended with a driving while intoxicated (DWI) charge. 

 

Marshfield School District Superintendent Mark Mayo told reporters that he confirmed the DWI charge and gave band director Kevin Crowley the choice of resignation or termination.  Mayo also said he didn't hear about the charge from Crowley. 

 

"I had a couple of people contact our principals, and I simply Googled it and found it on the police blotter of the Columbia Tribune," Mayo told reporters. 

Ten high school students traveled to Columbia with three band instructors in their personal vehicles.  Crowley -- remembered as a popular leader -- drove home with students after he bonded out of jail.

 

"We may not be able to convince everyone who directed angry phone calls and letters to our attention this past week, but the truth is, no one at the Marshfield Mail experienced any pleasure whatsoever in reporting the drunk-driving arrest and subsequent resignation of Marshfield High School Band Director Kevin Crowley," wrote that newspaper's editor in a Dec. 29 op-ed.  "Like Professor Harold Hill in 'The Music Man,' Crowley won many hearts in the Marshfield community over the past several years."

Crowley is scheduled to be arraigned in Columbia on February 11.