Several high-profile criminal cases filed in 2023 and 2024 remain pending against five Alamance-Burlington school employees who had been charged with assaulting and/or having inappropriate sexual contact with students.
On Tuesday, April 8, the former assistant principal at Southern Middle School, James Tyler Kelly, white, male, 41, of 2715 North Centennial Street, High Point, pleaded guilty to one felony count of a crime against nature. He was sentenced to 24 months’ supervised probation, receiving no active jail time, according to a transcript of the proceedings in Alamance County superior court.
Kelly had been charged in August 2023 after a detective with the Alamance County sheriff’s Special Victims Unit had received a report that Kelly was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student at Southern High School.
Kelly’s arrest warrant alleged that he had engaged in intercourse with a 17-year-old female student at Southern High School.
Kelly had transferred to the middle school from his previous position as assistant principal at Southern High School but was fired in late August 2023, based on a semi-monthly personnel report that school board members approved at the time. He was originally hired as a teacher in the Exceptional Children’s program at E.M. Holt Elementary School in 2011; and his final salary was $78,484.56, according to ABSS.
The state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) suspended Kelly’s license on February 2, 2024, according to a list of revocations and suspensions issued last fall.
Another alleged sex offense involving a student remains pending
An ABSS elementary school principal, middle school assistant principal, and a middle school teacher were each charged in 2023 with felony sex offenses. One elementary and one middle school teacher were charged in late 2024 with allegedly assaulting students. Two were later fired, while the other three resigned from their positions with ABSS.
Daniel Stephen McInnis, the former principal of Eastlawn Elementary School, white, male, then-43, of 632 Country Club Drive, Burlington was charged on December 29, 2023 with one count of a felony statutory sex offense on school property.
The Burlington police department said at the time that they had launched an investigation on December 8, 2023, after detectives in their Special Victims Unit (SVU) received information alleging a school administrator at Eastlawn was involved in misconduct with a student on school property. No other details about the circumstances behind the alleged misconduct have been disclosed.
Most recently, Alamance County senior resident superior court judge Andrew (“Andy”) Hanford entered an order on March 17, modifying the conditions of McInnis’ pre-trial release from jail.
Though the original conditions of his release from Alamance County jail prohibited him from going on the grounds of any ABSS school property, the order that Hanford entered last month partially granted a request by McInnis to be on school grounds.
McInnis had asked to be allowed to attend his children’s soccer games and an all-county band concert at eight ABSS schools between March 18 and May 8, 2025, because his wife coaches three recreation league youth soccer teams and may not be available to drop off or pick up their children from the afterschool events.
Hanford entered an order allowing McInnis to pick up and drop off his children from their events but continued to prohibit him from actually attending the band concert and soccer games, according to the court file.
An earlier order modifying the conditions of McInnis’ release, signed August 9, 2024 by then-senior resident superior court judge Tom Lambeth, Jr., had granted permission for McInnis to drop off and pick up his children from school at Smith Elementary and Turrentine Middle School.
School officials confirmed for The Alamance News that McInnis remains employed with ABSS but is suspended without pay.
School officials later confirmed that McInnis had been the principal at Eastlawn for 11 years, since November 5, 2012 and had an annual salary of $114,851.16 at the time of his arrest.
McInnis voluntarily surrendered his state teaching license on January 15, 2024, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.
McInnis’ case is currently scheduled to go to trial the week of November 3, 2025, based on a scheduling order recently entered by Alamance County superior court judge Doug Green.
Four cases pending against EC teacher
Four misdemeanor charges of assault on an individual disability are also currently pending in Alamance County district court against a former teacher at Andrews Elementary School.
The Burlington police department charged Jessica Dorothy Edwards, 27, white, female, of 185 Granite Mill Drive, Graham, on November 18, 2024 with allegedly assaulting disabled students at Andrews Elementary School, based on a release that the police department issued at the time.
The court files for Edwards’ four pending cases do not explicitly state how many alleged victims were involved, though the Burlington police department had said in November 2024 that the Exceptional Children’s teacher had assaulted two students at Andrews Elementary School.
Only three of the four court files contain arrest warrants outlining the circumstances surrounding the alleged assaults.
Two victims’ names or initials are redacted (i.e., blacked out) on two arrest warrants. One alleges that Edwards assaulted a disabled individual by “biting her arm”; the second alleges that she assaulted a disabled individual by “kicking him in the leg.” A third warrant, which identifies the victim by the initials E.A.P., alleges that Edwards assaulted a disabled individual by “pinching him.” The fourth case file contains no arrest warrant.
Edwards had been employed with ABSS since 2020 but was suspended from work following her charges in November and resigned on December 9, 2024, with a final monthly salary of $4,881.51, including benefits, ABSS officials confirmed this week.
Edwards is currently scheduled to appear on all four charges in Alamance County district court on Friday, May 9, 2025, according to her court file.
Assault charge voluntarily dismissed against former Turrentine teacher
Meanwhile, a charge of misdemeanor simple assault against a former eighth-grade social studies at Turrentine Middle School was recently dismissed.
Derek Kit-Son Tang, 50, Asian, male, of 2703 May Drive, Burlington, had been charged on December 16, 2024 with one count of misdemeanor simple assault for allegedly assaulting a student on school property. The alleged assault appeared to be an isolated incident, based on a news release that Burlington’s assistant police chief, Josh Light, issued after Tang was charged in December.
The charge was voluntarily dismissed as part of a plea agreement in Alamance County district court on Friday, March 28. No details about the terms of the plea agreement were provided; “supplemental documentation” is referenced – but not included – in Tang’s court file.
Tang was originally hired as a substitute teacher for ABSS in August 2014 and as a permanent teacher at Turrentine in August 2019, according to documents that the school system furnished in December in response to a public records request by The Alamance News. He was suspended with pay, effective Friday, December 13, 2024 and resigned on January 22, 2025, based on the semi-monthly personnel report that school board members approved at their meeting on January 27. Tang’s final salary was $50,682, including his base pay and benefits, according to ABSS.
Former Southern Middle School girls’ soccer coach enters Alford plea
In earlier action, a now former-Southern Middle School teacher and girls’ soccer coach, Ivan Danilo Ardila-Perez, 38, white, male, of 3627 Maple Avenue, Burlington, who had been charged in April and May 2023 with six counts of felony indecent liberties with a child entered an Alford plea in his cases.
The Alford plea means that Ardila-Perez acknowledged that the evidence against him was sufficient to gain a conviction but admitted no wrongdoing. He also acknowledged in entering his Alford plea that his plea could result in deportation from the U.S, according to a transcript of the proceeding.
Ardila-Perez had been employed with ABSS since September 2022 as a Visiting International Faculty (VIF) member from Colombia, school officials said at the time.
An investigation by the sheriff’s Special Victims Unit (SVU) revealed that seven females between the ages of 11 and 13 claimed that Ardila-Perez had inappropriate sexual contact while on school property and during school hours, the sheriff explained during a joint press conference in May 2023.
Ardila-Perez’s charges were consolidated into a single judgment for sentencing, according to his court file. He was sentenced to a minimum of 13 months and a maximum of 25 months (or one to two years) in prison and will be required to register as a sex offender for 30 years.
Ardila-Perez appears to have received credit for time served while awaiting trial in the Alamance County jail.
Information on file with the state Department of Adult Correction (DAC) indicates that Ardila-Perez was released on August 28, 2024, four days after he entered the Alford play. His state prison file does not explicitly state whether he was ever booked into a state prison facility, paroled, and/or deported.
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction revoked his state teaching license last year, according to a list of licensure revocations that DPI issued on September 24, 2024.
