The principal of Beman Middle School in Middletown is on leave and the superintendent notified the school community that it will be for an “indeterminate amount of time.”
Raymond Byron has been on leave since Thursday, the same day that the superintendent, Dr. Alberto Vázquez Matos, notified families that swastikas were found in one of the school’s bathrooms. The school district is working with the Middletown Police Department to investigate the anti-Semitic vandalism.
No information has been released on whether there is any connection between the leave and the discovery of the vandalism. School officials said the reason for Byron's leave is confidential.
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“Our priority continues to be the well-being and education of our students,” Vázquez Matos wrote in the letter about Byron’s leave.
Dan Raucci, a longtime Middletown Public Schools employee and the supervisor of English Language Arts for grades 6 through 12, is now serving as interim principal of Beman Middle School, the superintendent said.
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“As an employee, as a parent, and as a community member, the success of this district is of critical importance to me,” Raucci said in a statement.
