Middle-School Principal Wendee Long Charged In Texas Locker Room Camera Incident

By Howard Koplowitz | July 06 2012 12:20 PM

A middle-school principal in Texas has been charged with improper photography and wiretapping, for allegedly encouraging her daughter to hide a camera in a girls' locker room in an effort to get dirt on the girls' basketball coach, because the principal felt the coach was being too tough on her daughters.

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Wendee Long, principal of Wayside Middle School in Saginaw, Texas, is accused of using her 17-year-old daughter, Caydan Long, to plant the cell phone camera at an away game for Argyle High School, where Caydan and Long's other daughter are members of the girls' basketball team, according to WFAA.

The video was taken during half-time during the Feb. 7 game, allegedly to get dirt on Argyle girls' basketball coach Skip Townsend, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. WFAA reported that Long believed Townsend was too harsh on her daughters, who have since left the basketball team.

The middle-school principal was put on administrative leave from her job at Wayside Middle School after she told her supervisors she may face charges stemming from the video, the paper reported.

Long, 46, did indeed get charged, with a Denton County grand jury indicted her on charges of improper photography and wiretapping that could land her 20 years in the slammer if convicted, WFAA reported.

Long was released from the Denton County Jail on Tuesday after posting $25,000 bond, the station reported.

Daniel Peugh, the middle-school principal's lawyer, denied the charges.

She has not violated any law, the attorney told WFAA. We do not believe anything has taken place that should involve the justice system.

A grand jury decided not to charge Long's daughter in the camera case.

The middle-school principal was a former school trustee at Argyle, according to the Star-Telegram. Long has served as principal of Wayside Middle School for around five years, and the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw School District plans to look into Long's alleged behavior when its offices open Monday.

Julie Sheridan, an Argyle High School parent whose daughter was in the locker room when the camera was rolling, expressed disbelief over the allegations.

I don't understand why someone would go to those lengths to break a law to try to get something to go the way they want it to go, she told ABC News.