Westover’s Dallis Smith draws five-day suspension

ALBANY — Westover High School boys basketball coach Dallis Smith has been suspended for five days without pay and Westover principal William Chunn has received a letter of reprimand according to a press release from the Dougherty County School System.

The suspension went into effect Tuesday, meaning Smith missed Tuesday night’s game against arch-rival Monroe. He will also miss the Patriots’ home game with Mitchell County on Friday and Saturday’s game on the road at Crisp County.

The punishment stems from an incident that happened in late December while the team was playing in a tournament in Statesboro.

While participating in the Gentlemen’s Classic, Smith and an assistant coach conducted a room check where suspected marijuana was found in the room of one of the players. According to an incident report from the DCSS police department, the assistant coach discovered the contraband. Smith then disposed of the drugs by flushing them down the toilet, according to the investigative report.

The player’s mother was informed of the incident. She consented to and paid for the student to be transported by taxi from Statesboro to Savannah, where he waited for hours at a bus station before boarding a bus. The player then rode a Greyhound bus from Savannah to Tifton where he was picked up by his mother.

According to the statement released by the DCSS on Tuesday, Smith was suspended for using poor judgment in the handling of the incident. DCSS Superintendent Butch Mosley believes the coach made a decision he thought was correct but the choice exposed the school system to potential civil and legal liability, and it also put the student at risk.

“After weighing the incident and investigating, the superintendent believed there was a pretty big error in judgment,” DCSS superintendent spokesperson J.D. Sumner said. “The care and safety of our students is paramount. We also had concern about the destruction of the evidence. The superintendent took what he deemed to be appropriate action.”

Chunn’s punishment is due to not reporting the incident to the DCSS. The principal did not disclose the incident to the superintendent or senior administrative officials of the DCSS until he was questioned on January 5th according to the report.