Tamaqua board President Wittig says he is not resigning

The head of Tamaqua Area School Board emphatically reiterated at Tuesday’s school board meeting that he will not step down from his seat despite once again being asked to resign.

“I was elected for a one-year term as president. I am the only one that determines whether I step down or not, and I’m not going to,” board President Larry Wittig told a packed room.

About 50 people came to discuss recent sexual misconduct allegations against Wittig when he was coaching the rowing team at the University of Pennsylvania more than 30 years ago.

Much like at last month’s board meeting — which also had about 50 people in attendance — the focus was unmistakably on its pacesetter.

After a Philadelphia Inquirer article broke in December, Wittig admitted to the Times News that he had sex with a student, saying it was a “lapse in judgment.”

His accuser, Annette DeMichele, said it was consensual at the time, but now, looking back, she felt she was unduly influenced by him. DeMichele was not on the team he was coaching.

After the article was published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Wittig resigned from his position as chairman of the state board of education, but said his position in Tamaqua would be determined by his fellow board members.

Another article about the situation was published in the Inquirer last week bringing attention to the fact that he has not resigned.

Wittig said Tuesday night that the state board of education is an appointed position from which he resigned.

“Before anything even hit, I resigned to avoid the governor being embarrassed, and the state board being embarrassed, because I didn’t want them to be dragged into anything,” Wittig said. “This is an elected position, elected. The school board has nothing to do with me being up here, nothing.”

Wittig’s remarks sparked a huge round of applause.

Karen Tharp of West Penn Township was the first member of the audience to speak Tuesday.

“It seems to me that Mr. Wittig is trying to deflect attention away from the scandal he has brought to the district by bringing up hot-button items and by blaming all of this on politics,” Tharp said. “My issue with Mr. Wittig’s actions are not that he had an affair, but with the fact that he was an adult in a position of authority who had an admitted — and I stress admitted — relationship with a minor.

He may not have been her coach at the time, but he was a coach on a team that still put him within her circle. She knew him as a coach, he knew her as a student-athlete. The relationship was inappropriate, period.”

Tharp added, “People who work in education are held to a higher standard for obvious reasons; anyone else caught in that type of relationship would lose their job immediately, or they would not have been hired in the first place.

“He has admitted to this inappropriate act. It is not speculation, and it is not OK,” she said. “So, no, I am not here, Mr. Wittig, because of politics or because I disagree with district policy. I am here because you should not be serving on the school board.”

Christine Troxell, of Walker Township, said she believes there are a lot of good people in the area who work very hard for the community, “and I’m saddened to see the tremendous black eye that Tamaqua has received as a result of our president on the school board, and I ask you to reconsider.”

Paula Schuetrum of Tamaqua said she wanted to clarify the difference between a mistake and a choice.

“A mistake is made once and only once; a choice is made more than once,” Schuetrum said. “I understand we all make bad decisions, and I’m guilty of them myself, but I’m not in a position of power or over children like you are, so we are asking for your resignation.”

Liz Pinkey of Tamaqua, a Times News correspondent who was acting as a resident and parent of the school district, said she spoke alone at last month’s meeting when she asked for his resignation.

“I’ve come back tonight, and there are more voices here, and we are not going to be silenced and we are going to continue to come here until what is right is done and you step down,” Pinkey said. “I urge you before Tamaqua continues to be maligned in the press by a paper that is read by many, many people both in the area and out of the area, to step away from this board and step away from the children in this district and let us move on with the more important things of this district.”

Blake Tharp, of New Ringgold, said he has people from surrounding communities asking how a president of the school board who has allegations against them is still allowed to serve, and asked the board why Wittig is still allowed to serve on the board.

“We’re in the world of the internet, the world of social media,” Tharp said. “This is not going to go away. If anything, it’s going to get bigger and darker and uglier, and I’m just kind of embarrassed being a part of the community and have to kind of justify why this is going on.”

Support for Wittig

Tim Houser of West Penn Township was back to once again voice his support for Wittig.

“One of the worst things that Mr. Wittig had to do through this whole situation that happened 35 years ago was to sit down and face his adult children and tell them about the mistakes he made in his life 35 years ago,” Houser said.

Houser said that in his time on the board, Wittig has created jobs in Tamaqua, has built a tremendous school board, and has maintained taxes at the very lowest possible level that they could.

“But I just hope and pray that this school board stands behind him because he has done nothing but good for the last 35 years,” he said. “All you people that want to admonish him, when you go to church on Sunday, if you go to church, before you go to church, open up the dictionary and read under forgiveness.”

April Walker, a 1992 graduate of Tamaqua, said she has personally known Wittig since she was 13 years old, and “he has never once been inappropriate toward me. He’s only ever treated me with kindness and respect.”

Walker asked, “Why dredge all of this up now? For what purpose?

“And this is not a matter of someone being violated. No one was violated.”

Doug Houser, a 1964 graduate of Tamaqua, said he was not there to judge Wittig one way or the other, “because in my years, everybody makes mistakes.

“When Mr. Wittig got on the board, as well as a lot of other good people on this board, things changed in Tamaqua in the educational process,” Houser said. I would only urge you people on the board to support your president. People make mistakes, but this district has come a long way.”

Carol Tempest, a 1975 graduate of Tamaqua, said, “The only question I have, is there anyone here that can say anything that Larry Wittig has done since the time that he has been with Tamaqua Area School District that has disgraced or has done anything to any of our children?”

“I think not. We’re lucky to have him,” she said.

After Wittig stressed he is not resigning, he defended the school board. “Your beef with these guys is unwarranted because they don’t have any control over that situation which you are so concerned about.”

His term is set to expire in 2019.