CENTER OF PROBE: Kallenberg denies inappropriate conduct

Kallenberg doesn’t know how to answer the question.

Since July, Kallenberg, assistant principal at the school, has been at the very public center of an investigation into allegations of grade-changing and student-teacher sex at Powell. She’s on administrative leave with pay pending the probe’s outcome, but the possibility that she might one day be cleared of all wrongdoing is at best a cold comfort to her.

The allegations made against Kallenberg range from alleged instances of unethical behavior such as grade-changing for select students to lurid hints of a sexual relationship with a football star aspiring to play for the University of Tennessee, Joseph Lee Smith.

Although Kallenberg has been cleared of the sex allegations by both the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and Knox County Law Department, she maintains the damage done to her reputation by "gossip and rumor" has been devastating.

When asked about her future as an educator in Knox County, Kallenberg replied: "I don’t think I have one."

"That’s sad, too, because every move that I have made is to be an educator. It’s a calling — it’s like being a minister," she added.

Kallenberg and her attorney, Gregory P. Isaacs, have responded to the investigation with a series of legal counterattacks, accusing school officials of sexual discrimination and slander.

In a lengthy interview with the News Sentinel the day before she filed a lawsuit against her employers, Kallenberg said the first indication she had that she might be in serious trouble came July 17 when she and her supervisor, Principal Diane Psihogios, were called to the school’s central office for questioning.

"I wasn’t asked questions; accusations were made to me," Kallenberg said. "I was taken aback. I had never had my character questioned before. ? I was devastated."

Kallenberg was questioned about several purported incidents including an alleged meeting between Smith and herself at Coyote Joe’s on Clinton Highway and an incident when she allegedly had to be "pulled off" the student by secretary Karen Craig and math teacher Gina Currier, records show.

Craig declined to be interviewed for this story, and Currier couldn’t be reached for comment.

Based on affidavits from people who were at Coyote Joe’s on the night in question, Kallenberg received a call from Smith on her cell phone, which wasn’t unusual because her cell phone number is listed in the faculty directory because she and her husband don’t "have a landline at their residence."

When Smith showed up at the bar later, the witnesses didn’t observe any inappropriate interactions between Kallenberg and the student, the affidavits state. The witnesses also said Kallenberg and the rest of the party "consciously distanced ourselves from the student" and didn’t see him drink alcohol.

The names of the people who gave the affidavits were blacked out on the copies obtained by the News Sentinel, and Smith isn’t referred to by name. All three witnesses said they hadn’t been interviewed by the school system concerning the incident.

One witness, who described herself as a school secretary, added the following: "I have recently reviewed documents from the Knox County Board of Education wherein it is alleged that I assisted the student in entering the restaurant/bar and that I pulled the student off Mrs. Kallenberg. These allegations are false. ? I was greatly distressed to see that these allegations were contained in school records and that I had not been given an opportunity to respond to these serious allegations."

Kallenberg was accused of several other questionable acts, such as allowing Smith to drive her car and getting into a confrontation with Smith’s girlfriend over their alleged relationship. Kallenberg and Isaacs, however, maintain that there are either innocuous explanations for Kallenberg’s actions or that the purported incidents never happened.

Although Kallenberg never mentioned Smith by name during the interview, she denied any inappropriate conduct with any student.

As the investigation unfolded, Kallenberg said, she was stunned by intimations that she had worn inappropriate clothing and that her large breast size might have contributed to her difficulties.

"I don’t understand the relevance of that," she said. "I can’t help what God gives to me."

Kallenberg is also angry that school officials confirmed to the media that she was under investigation and accused schools spokesman Russ Oaks of providing false information.

Oaks, however, stressed that no action has been taken against Kallenberg and that she was placed on leave as a matter of school procedure.

"That’s not a punitive action," he said. "The procedure is in place to protect all individuals. When we receive any type of allegation that could be of a nature to put an employee or student at risk or in a difficult position, we put them on administrative leave with pay while we look into the facts."

Also, he stressed, the school system has not made an allegation against anyone.

"We’re involved in an investigative process, and it needs to run its course," he said.

J.J. Stambaugh may be reached at 865-342-6307.