NCHS Parent Wants To Know The Cost Of Investigation Of Controversial Skit

The video of the controversial skit performed before hundreds of Natrona County High School staff in August is now in reruns.

A parent of students at the school scolded the school district's board of trustees at its bimonthly meeting Monday for the way it handled the "Saturday Night Live" parody and its video that contained ribald jokes about themselves and other staff, sexuality, body parts, and a serial killer.

Most businesses would never tolerate that, Robert Lempka said.

"As most of you know, in the real world, we'd be dismissed immediately," Lempka said.

"I sent this video to my HR (human resources) director at corporate headquarters," he said. "She watched four minutes of it. That's all I asked her to watch. She said I would have been dismissed or fired 35 times in the first four minutes."

The district disciplined those involved in the skit, but no one lost their jobs. Natrona County High School principal Dean Kelly resigned and was reassigned to another job within the district.

The independent investigator who reviewed the video of the skit reported that it violated the district's sexual harassment policy. But redactions in the report of the names of participants and especially administrators, plus contradictory testimony left some issues unresolved.

Lempka said the investigation probably cost a lot of money, he'd like to know the amount, but doesn't expect much in the way of answers.

"The community can pay tens of thousands of dollars for an investigation," he said. "You can't do anything about it, including sexual harassment, co-workers and students. Nothing happens."

Lempka had homeschooled his children for nine years until three years ago when he and his wife enrolled them in the district.

In the wake of the skit, he now plans to withdraw them and homeschool them again.

After the board meeting, district attorney Kathleen Dixon said she does not know how much money the investigation cost or if the district would release those figures.