School director resigns following after- meeting confrontationSchool director resigns following after- meeting confrontation

A member of the Grand Coulee Dam school board has resigned in the wake of a contentious stand the board took last week to not allow four graduates to "walk" at graduation.

Deidre Ellsworth explained her decision to step down in a letter to "students offended by my action after the board meeting," which she asked The Star to publish. It's on page 2.

The affected students allegedly had arranged to buy alcohol on the senior trip to Disneyland. The board backed the decision of the administration to stick to an agreement signed by the seniors and to follow through with consequences.

Following an appeal process, the board stuck to that stand in a second meeting with students and parents. Afterward, outside, the discussion continued as another board member was facing upset students. Ellsworth thought she could help, she said, but instead, "still running on full adrenaline" after the meeting, she used curse words while addressing relatives, "not intending it to go further."

"After the incident, I immediately was regretful in my word choices, but as a volunteer for the GCD School district, I can't act like it's ok to be baited and videoed knowing my heart is hurting and all of our feelings are on High," she wrote.

"I did hope to continue my work until I realized that in this day and age you are taught to try and catch people doing something that may offend you and make a mockery of it, no matter how sincere we are," she wrote. "If I can't speak with my heart and not be classified a bully, then this isn't for me."