SC charter school let principal work while under investigation for sex with student
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An Upstate charter school whose principal was arrested on a student-related sex crime charge in January had known about the allegations for over a year, but permitted the accused sex offender to continue working at the school, an investigation by The State Media Co. found.
Calhoun Falls Charter School, a 160-student middle and high school in Abbeville County, employed and continued to pay Principal Kalan Rogers his $83,640 salary during the pendency of a criminal investigation into his conduct and for nearly nine months after he was criminally charged with sexual battery of a student, records show.
For much, if not all of that time, Rogers appears to have continued performing his duties as principal, and spent at least eight of the 15 months after the allegations surfaced working in the school without any restrictions, documents show.
Rogers eventually resigned, apparently on his own terms, at the end of June.
His criminal case is pending.
Calhoun Falls Charter School board Chairman Tracy Lindler declined to answer many of The State’s questions about the school’s unusual handling of Rogers’ employment — including whether it notified parents about the principal’s legal troubles — but said the board’s decisions were “guided by its policies and based on legal advice and the board’s determination of what was in the best interests of the school.”
It’s not clear what role, if any, Calhoun Falls’ sponsor, the Charter Institute at Erskine, had in advising the school about its handling of the principal.
The Charter Institute, which in late 2023 received a report that Rogers had engaged in inappropriate behavior with a student, declined an interview request and did not respond to emailed questions.
Joseph Seiner, a University of South Carolina law professor with expertise in labor and employment law, said it’s highly unusual for an employer to allow an employee who is under active criminal investigation to continue working, especially in a public-facing job.
Doing so is risky, both legally and from a public safety perspective, and could expose an employer to a negligence claim, he said.
“If the school continues to employ him and he is indeed responsible for what the allegations are, and he does something else, it can really put the school in jeopardy and potentially harm young people, as well as the community,” Seiner said. “So you want to be very hesitant when dealing with those allegations.”
Police open investigation into sex crime
Rogers, 31, came under suspicion in November 2023 after a man told the Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office that the principal was being blackmailed by a former student with whom he’d had a relationship several years earlier, according to a police report obtained by The State.
The complainant told police that Rogers admitted to the relationship after being confronted with a trail of text messages and Cash App transactions that laid bare the illicit tryst he’d had with a student in Union County, where he’d taught before coming to Calhoun Falls.
In addition to the thousands of dollars Rogers had allegedly sent the former Union County student, the complainant told police the principal was also sending money to multiple current “young male athletes” at Calhoun Falls Charter School, including one student he’d lavished with more than $700.
The police report, filed Nov. 13, 2023, confirms the charter school was aware of the allegations, at least broadly.
It notes that Lindler, the board chairman, contacted the Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office to report information the school had received from the Charter Institute about an inappropriate relationship between Rogers and a student.
Abbeville County referred the case to SLED because the alleged crime occurred outside its jurisdiction, records show.
A SLED spokeswoman confirmed the agency received the case from Abbeville County the same day the report was filed, and launched an investigation into allegations of criminal sexual conduct involving Rogers.
SLED declined to release its investigative report on the principal, citing the possibility that doing so could interfere with his pending criminal case.
Calhoun falls puts Rogers on leave
Calhoun Falls Charter School held an emergency board meeting the same evening its chairman reported Rogers to the Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office in November 2023.
At the meeting, the board placed Rogers on paid administrative leave, effective immediately, and tapped the assistant principal to perform the principal’s duties while he was on leave, minutes show.
Lindler would not disclose the conditions of Rogers’ leave, even though the minutes state they were “established by the board chair.”
He said the board did not keep a written record of the terms and did not notify Rogers in writing that he’d been placed on leave.
“No documents were needed other than the Board’s action which was documented in the board’s minutes,” he explained in an email.
The school also produced no evidence that it conducted an internal investigation into Rogers’ alleged behavior.
Lindler declined to disclose whether an investigation was performed, but did confirm that Rogers was never disciplined.
Seiner, the labor law expert, said it would be highly unusual for an employer not to perform its own investigation into serious misconduct allegations, even if it knew police were also investigating.
“The school, if it’s doing its job, should be performing its own investigation,” he said.
Board minutes show Rogers continued working
Since Calhoun Falls Charter School appears not to have documented anything related to Rogers’ case in writing, school board meeting minutes and social media posts offer the only glimpse into his status at the school.
A review of the board’s minutes from January 2024 through May 2024 show that, while on leave, Rogers continued attending meetings virtually and updated the board on pressing issues at the school, including its budget and finances, standardized testing, professional development, federal programs, athletics and school improvement.
Lindler confirmed that Rogers was permitted to continue working while on leave because of his “valuable and unique experience and knowledge regarding the administration and operations of the school,” but said the principal had “only limited and supervised contact” with the school’s students during that time.
That changed in late May 2024 when, for reasons that Lindler would not disclose, the Calhoun Falls board reinstated Rogers to “full duty status.”
The reason for the change is not stated in the board’s minutes, but the timing coincides with when the South Carolina Attorney General’s office said it received SLED’s investigation into Rogers.
A SLED spokeswoman declined to say whether the agency notified Calhoun Falls about the conclusion of its investigation.
Jeffery Hines, the Abbeville County sheriff’s lieutenant who took the initial report on Rogers, said his office would not have updated the school on the status of SLED’s investigation.
“They did not hear it from the sheriff’s office,” he said. “I can say that with confidence.”
Even if Calhoun Falls had been notified that Rogers would not be charged for anything that occurred at the charter school, the board’s decision to reinstate him while he remained under criminal investigation elsewhere was not advisable, Seiner, the law professor, said.
“If this is someone who has a propensity to engage in this type of conduct with a student, it wouldn’t matter whether this was at a former employer or even outside of a school setting,” he said. “When you are dealing with children and vulnerable populations, you have to take it very seriously, as if it happened in your own school district.”
Within days of Rogers’ return to full duty, a picture of him wearing a black graduation gown and standing beside two faculty members in front of a Calhoun Falls-themed backdrop was posted on the school’s Facebook page.
A video of the graduation ceremony, produced by the Charter Institute at Erskine, shows Rogers delivering a commencement address, handing diplomas to graduates and embracing them as they pose for pictures.
“It’s my great honor to stand with you before today as the principal of Calhoun Falls Charter School,” he says in the video, posted on the school’s Facebook page in August 2024.
Less than two months later, a Spartanburg County grand jury indicted Rogers on a single count of sexual battery with a student.
The Oct. 11 indictment accuses him of performing oral sex on a 17-year-old student in Spartanburg County between Aug. 1, 2016, and May 31, 2017, when he was a physical education teacher and track coach at Union County High School.
It’s not clear whether the student referenced in the indictment is the same one the original complainant alleged was blackmailing Rogers.
While it’s not illegal in South Carolina for an adult to have consensual sex with a 17-year-old, it is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison for someone affiliated with a school in an official capacity to have sex with a 16- or 17-year-old student who attends that school.
Calhoun Falls principal worked while under indictment
Rogers continued working at Calhoun Falls without restrictions for several months after the indictment.
Photos posted on the school’s Facebook page during that time show him posing at a football game with the Calhoun Falls homecoming court and celebrating with school staff on the final day of the fall 2024 semester.
The school also posted a Facebook tribute to Rogers on his birthday in November.
“Happy Birthday to THE BEST Principal,” the caption reads. “You make CFCS a great place to be!!!”
Calhoun Falls has not explained why it did not immediately restrict Rogers’ access to students after he was indicted, but it’s possible the school simply was unaware he’d been criminally charged.
Ordinarily, when someone is accused of a crime, they’re picked up on an arrest warrant and taken to jail.
In Rogers’ case, however, he was indicted before an arrest warrant was issued — in what is known as a direct presentment — and wasn’t required to report to jail until Jan. 31, more than three months later.
Rogers was suspended with pay on the day of his arrest in January.
The Calhoun Falls board accepted his resignation at its February meeting, a few days before the South Carolina Board of Education suspended his educator license.
In its order of summary suspension, the state board wrote the S.C. Department of Education had reason to believe that “Mr. Rogers may pose a threat to the health, safety, and welfare of students who may be under his instruction, and that emergency action is required.”
By law, the revocation or suspension of an educator’s certificate “shall terminate the employment of such person until such time as a decision is reached concerning the charge against such person.”
But Rogers wasn’t done at Calhoun Falls Charter School.
He remained employed, and apparently actively working, for another four months, records show.
Meeting minutes available on the school’s website show that Rogers delivered a presentation on the school’s budget as recently as May.
“The numbers are where they should be for this point in the year,” he told the board via video call, according to a summary of Rogers’ comments recorded in the minutes.
Lindler did not immediately respond when asked why Rogers was still working at the school three months after the board approved a motion accepting his resignation.
He said Calhoun Falls had no record of a resignation letter or resignation agreement with Rogers, but confirmed that he’d tendered his resignation, effective June 30.
This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "SC charter school let principal work while under investigation for sex with student."
