A North Carolina elementary school principal has been indicted after prosecutors say she deliberately lied to police and helped orchestrate a cover-up during an investigation into the restraint of a 6-year-old girl with autism.
Tounya Wright, 60, the principal of Eno Valley Elementary School, was indicted last week on three counts of obstructing justice and one count of perjury. The charges stem from a disturbing November 2024 incident in which a teacher’s aide allegedly tied the young student to a chair using a jump rope.
According to court records, the investigation focused heavily on photographs Wright received showing the child bound to the chair inside the school. Police say Wright repeatedly lied about how she obtained the images and when she received them, despite her legal obligation under North Carolina law to immediately report suspected child abuse to law enforcement.
Wright initially told officers that the photos had been anonymously slipped under her office door. That story, investigators say, was false. Instead, authorities allege the images were secretly taken by a janitor, sent to a school secretary, and then texted directly to Wright. The indictment claims Wright and other administrators engaged in a “coordinated effort to deflect liability” once the photos surfaced.
Police also allege Wright misrepresented the timeline, claiming she received the photos later than she actually did — a delay that may have affected the course of the investigation.
Two teacher’s aides connected to the incident resigned in December 2024. One was arrested on child abuse and related charges. But the case began to unravel when investigators later interviewed the janitor who took the photos. She told police that the aide who had been arrested was not even at school on the day the images were taken, raising the possibility that the wrong person had been accused.
Prosecutors ultimately dropped the criminal case against the aide in November.
In stark language, the indictment accuses Wright of acting “with deceit and intent to defraud, and in secrecy and malice.” Investigators wrote that Wright’s credibility collapsed under scrutiny, citing her “shifting explanations” and contradictions with other witnesses and documentation, particularly regarding the chain of custody for the photos and the identity of the initial reporter.
The fallout has widened beyond Wright. Two other senior school officials — Tanya Janique Giovanni, a deputy superintendent, and Ayesha Hunter, the senior executive director of employee relations — were also indicted on obstruction charges tied to the same investigation.
