Palacios, Covenant-Saipan, said a grievance has been filed already with the Public School System and Garrison is no longer with PSS.
Garrison’s resignation, he added, should have already addressed the issue and it’s now up to PSS to act on the complaints of James Yangetmai and other teachers who earlier demanded the ouster of the controversial principal.
The filing of a grievance, Palacios said, was all his committee had been waiting to see.
Noting that the atmosphere at MHS was affected by the controversy, Palacios said his committee wants to make sure that “things like this won’t happen again.”
In a separate interview, Yangetmai said he has been transferred to Hopwood Junior High while his wife, Denita, is now with Kagman High School.
Yangetmai said he would have wanted to stay at MHS. He said he had talked to the acting principal, Cherlyn Cabrera, to express his desire to continue teaching at MHS.
However, the PSS human resources office informed him on July 7 that he would be transferred to Hopwood. The next day, the HRO informed his wife that she would be transferred to Kagman High.
Yangetmai, who has been teaching in MHS since 1985 said he will file an appeal with the education commissioner, adding that his heart has always been with MHS students.
Asked about Garrison’s resignation, Yangetmai said he felt sad when he heard about it, adding that it is hard to be jobless these days.
He said he did not actually want to see Garrison lose his job. All he wanted was Garrison’s transfer to another school.
He also said that with Garrison’s resignation, many questions are left unanswered.
“He actually never answered all the allegations. That can be translated many ways,” Yangetmai said.
It was Yangetmai who led the protest actions against Garrison, accusing the principal of “assault public humiliation, abuse of power, damaging school property, defamation, and threats to job security.”
Other MHS teachers described Garrison as “arrogant” and “unprofessional.”
Last week, he submitted a resignation letter which was immediately accepted by Education Commissioner Rita Sablan who later told Garrison to stop reporting for work effective July 18.
Garrison on Friday filed a discrimination complaint against Sablan with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
