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Superintendent resigns from jail

By Mark Stine - email

"We were very shocked that this could happen in our neighborhood. We were just totally flabbergasted."

Jerry Camp's surprised and worried about Tom Roger's arrest because his daughters attend Tanque Verde Schools.

Camp explains, "Sick to our stomach and very scared about our other kids going there. We have one graduated and two more starting to go through the district. So it does make it a little scary."

Camp says he's more at ease now that the Tanque Verde School District received this letter of resignation from Tom Rogers, sent from the Yuma County Jail.

"He sent it to Kim, our director of HR, who received it this afternoon," Tanque Verde Board President Steven Auslander told KOLD.

The date on the letter is June 22nd. It arrived at the district one day later.

It reads, "Please accept this as my letter of resignation and let Steven know so he can inform the board. Tell him I'm sorry to leave the district in such a horrible way but I don't know what is going on or what will happen to me."

Auslander said, "On some human level there's contrition, he expresses his regret over doing this to the people here in the Tanque Verde School District."

Rogers goes on to write, "I don't know why I'm being held, have not been to see the judge or able to talk to a lawyer."

"It's as if this man lead two lives," Auslander said.

Now, one of those lives ends with this letter. The district placed Rogers on paid leave Monday night, but now they've accepted his resignation.

Auslander explained, "The search for an interim superintendent can go on unimpeded by our not having the pay Tom Rogers as his resignation will be immediate."

And as the district tries to move forward, they say they don't want to leave parents in the dark. That's why they're holding a public meeting at Emily Gray Junior High Friday night at 7pm.

"We'll lay out the information we have, we'll share what we've seen and been shown and we'll answer what questions we can from folks who attend," Auslander told KOLD.

If you would like to read the letter going out to parents, just click on the link for Tanque Verde School District to the right of this story.