Former Shelby County assistant principal arrested on charges of attempting to have sex with a child

Published 4:39 pm Tuesday, March 4, 2014

By GINNY COOPER / Staff Writer

John McGill, 56, who served as assistant principal at both Shelby County High School and Elvin Hill Elementary School during the mid 1990s was arrested March 1, and charged with trying to have sex with a child.

McGill

McGill

McGill was one of 14 people arrested in Georga in an undercover investigation conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit.

According to a GBI news release, McGill and others arrested in the sting operation “were charged with OCGA 16-12-100.2, Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act of 1999.”

“The purpose of ‘Operation Broken Heart’ was to arrest persons who communicate with children on-line and then travel to meet them for the purpose of having sex,” the news release stated.

Cindy Warner, community education and public relations supervisor for the Shelby County school system, said that records indicate that McGill simply resigned from his position with the Shelby County schools to take another position elsewhere.

“There are no indications in his employment record that we ever had any problems with him,” Warner said. “In fact, he had received average to above average evaluations.”

At the time of his arrest, McGill was principal of Mt. Carmel Elementary School in Douglas County, Georgia.

“We take this matter very seriously,” Douglas County School Superintendent Dr. Gordon Pritz said in a news release. “He has been suspended by the system pending the law enforcement investigation.”

According to his online biography, posted for the 2011-2012 school year, McGill is married with six children and three grandchildren. His biography also states that McGill obtained a Ph.D. in educational leadership from Samford University as well as degrees from Troy State University and Alabama State University. His biography has since been removed from the Mt. Carmel Elementary School website.