Superintendent Laurie Kimbrel’s husband has confessed to making insulting comments online about a Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) parent.
The comments, made under the pseudonym “Tom Ohara,” included claims that district parent Mitch Wortzman was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and was embezzling from his company.
Wortzman’s lawyer, Karl Olson, called the comments, which were posted in the fall in the “Friends of Tam Union District” Facebook group and the comments section of the Marin Independent Journal website, “malicious and defamatory.”
Kimbrel’s husband, Tim Olrick, told the Chicago Tribune that he posted the comments because of criticism of his wife by members of the “Friends of Tam Union District” group, which is comprised of parents, students, teachers, and community members.
“I was set off by their attacks on my wife, and, being foolish, I made a mistake,” he told the Tribune.
Olrick also denied Kimbrel’s involvement with and knowledge of the remarks.
“This is 100 percent not my issue,” Kimbrel said to the Tribune. “My husband and I are not the same person.”
Wortzman, who made the comments public at a TUHSD Board meeting last Tuesday, said that he was offered $35,000 by Kimbrel and Olrick as part of a settlement deal, but turned it down because he wanted a retraction and public apology.
Kimbrel announced her resignation from the TUHSD on Jan. 12 in order to take a job in the Chicago area. News of the comments has reached Township High School District 113 in Highland Park, Illinois, where she has been hired as the new superintendent.
In an emergency District 113 Board meeting held Wednesday afternoon, Board president Marjie Sandlow said they are investigating the matter as well as Kimbrel’s ties to the search firm that hired her.
Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates was hired by District 113 last year to find a new superintendent. Hank Gmitro, president of the firm, said that Kimbrel was brought on as an associate to help with superintendent searches in California, but never actually assisted with a search and therefore was not paid. He added that Kimbrel severed ties with the firm before she applied for the Illinois job.
“I absolutely do not condone behavior that lacks civility,” Kimbrel said about the cyberbullying controversy, according to the Tribune. “I have two teenagers, and we have had numerous chats over the years about our virtual identities and our presence on the Internet. What I never dreamed of, quite honestly, was that the conversation needed to extend to my 51-year-old husband.”
