Hilton Head principal accused of sex in school was ‘pressured to resign’ but refused, attorney says

The Beaufort County School District “threatened” Hilton Head Island High School Principal Amanda O’Nan and asked her to hand in her resignation less than 24 hours after it was reported that a former Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputy admitted to allegations that he had sex with her on school grounds in 2016, according to a letter from the principal’s attorney.

Interim Superintendent Herb Berg called both these assertions untrue Wednesday evening.

“I can categorically deny that I did not threaten Ms. O’Nan nor demand that she resign,” Berg said.

Nearly two months after the school district and South Carolina Department of Education opened new investigations into the allegations against O’Nan, the district has yet to release any updates or conclusions to the public.

However, a Jan. 14 letter from O’Nan’s attorney, Ed Kubec, to the Beaufort County Board of Education, may shed some light into the events that led to the renewed investigations.

On Jan. 7, The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette reported that former Staff Sgt. DeJuan Holmes had submitted to an internal investigation at the sheriff’s office and admitted to the allegations that he and O’Nan had carried out an extramarital affair while he was on duty.

That evening, the district’s chief administrative and human resources officer contacted O’Nan and informed her that she was required to meet with Interim Superintendent Herb Berg the following morning and should “expect the worst,” Kubec’s letter states.

In the Jan. 8 meeting, Berg allegedly “pressured” O’Nan to resign, according to the letter.

He coupled a demand for her to hand in her resignation with a “threat”: If O’Nan refused to resign, she would be put on indefinite leave, be reported to the State Board of Education, have her certificate revoked and “her future in education would be over,” the letter states.

Berg allegedly gave O’Nan less than four hours to make her decision. Although she requested a 24-hour period to consult with her legal counsel, Berg rejected her request, according to her attorney’s letter.

By the afternoon of Jan. 8, O’Nan informed Berg that she would not resign. Berg subsequently placed O’Nan on paid administrative leave, reopened a district investigation and asked the State Department of Education to conduct its own investigation into the allegations.

Although Walton told O’Nan the decision was based on an “unspecified allegation of ‘professional misconduct,’” Berg specified that his decision was premised on statements made by Holmes published by the newspapers on Jan. 7, Kubec’s letter states.

Kubec called Berg’s decision a “knee-jerk response to the media’s dubiously voyeuristic foray into the private lives of private citizens” based on an accusation “lacking any credibility whatsoever.”

“The complete lack of procedural and substantive due process afforded to Ms. O’Nan by the Beaufort County School District and the Interim Superintendent is beyond comprehensible,” he wrote.

Superintendent Berg defended his decision late Wednesday, saying that the steps taken were “professional, honorable and the right thing to do.” He would not say where the investigation stands or when it would be concluded.

O’Nan was hired as the principal of Hilton Head Island High in 2006 and is well-regarded for the school’s success, including raising its graduation rate by more than 20 percentage points and expanding its international baccalaureate program, according to state and district data.

In April 2016, however, allegations of O’Nan conducting an extramarital affair on school grounds surfaced when O’Nan’s then-husband, Chris O’Nan, filed a complaint with the sheriff’s office against then-Staff Sgt. Holmes. Amanda O’Nan denied both the affair and abusing her position at the time, and Holmes resigned in lieu of submitting to an internal affairs investigation.

At that time, the district said its human resources department had conducted an investigation and had “found no evidence” of wrongdoing by the principal.

But in late January, the district changed its story, instead saying that former superintendent Jeff Moss had handled the investigation into O’Nan himself and had broken protocol by keeping high-ranking administrators from performing their duties in the investigation process.

In an effort to get his job back in June 2018, Holmes agreed to an internal affairs inquiry that he avoided in 2016 by resigning. During an 11-minute interview, Holmes admitted to sheriff’s office investigators that he had an affair with O’Nan and had had sex with her inside the high school while on duty.

When asked about Holmes’ admission to the allegations in early January, O’Nan declined to comment.

The Jan. 8 letter from her attorney, however, states that O’Nan “denies any wrongdoing.”

Kubec was not immediately available for comment late Wednesday.

This story was originally published March 6, 2019 at 6:56 PM.