Citrus Heights School Closure Met With Mixed Reaction
CITRUS HEIGHTS (CBS13) -- Parents, teachers and students were nowhere to be found at Creative Frontiers School in Citrus Heights.
From bustling summer camp to now a ghost town, the only sign of life at Creative Frontiers elementary and preschool are a couple of horses out in front they may have blinders on, but investigators say they don't.
The trickle from a fountain is the only sound you'll hear on the sprawling school campus in Citrus Heights where summer camp, which had been in high gear, has come to a screeching halt. Allegations of sexual misconduct against its principal have shut it down
"That's news to me. I didn't have any idea," said neighbor Virginia Lively.
Neighbors of Creative Frontiers say they're stunned by the silence. Virginia Lively noticed the lack of life on campus where preschool through 6th graders have been coming for 36 years.
The swings and hoops court sit untouched and towels hang from a fence. Hanging on the office front door is a notice of a complaint investigation report telling parents the school has been shut down indefinitely because of allegations of "inappropriate sexual contact with a daycare child."
"I know he's a good man," said a man who works at the school.
The man helps take care of the animals and said he knows the accused and says he's beyond shocked
"[I] really cannot believe it…really cannot believe it," he said.
Neighbors say shutting down the school was the right call.
"I think they need to investigate and see if it's really happening, and if it is, they're doing the right thing," said a woman we talked to.
But others warn that no one should jump to conclusions calling it "court by media."
The move to close the school, some feel, was a bit too much.
"It seems extreme to go and shut the whole school down when he hasn't been charged. We don't know all the facts yet, and who's gonna suffer? It's gonna be the kids," said one woman we talked to.
The caretaker says he's been coming here about seven years to help take care of the animals, and he says he expects to come here for years to come. He predicts so will the children.
