Tempe City Councilman Kolby Granville was fired from his job teaching at Tempe Preparatory Academy last month.
The Arizona Republic reported Thursday on Granville was fired from his teaching job at Tempe Preparatory Academy after former students alleged he provided them alcohol when they were underage and “ made unwanted sexual advances.”
The city of Tempe released a statement saying it takes the allegations against Granville seriously and will review the claims alongside the city’s code of conduct. The guidelines say to conduct business legally and ethically beyond reproach. The city’s employee handbook calls unwanted sexual advances unacceptable behavior in the workplace.
Tempe’s charter grants the council power to investigate Granville. It also dictates the mayor and councilmembers forfeit their office if they violate the city charter or are convicted of a crime involving “moral turpitude.”
Councilman Randy Keating wrote on Facebook that he found the allegations “deeply troubling,” called for an investigation and urged Granville to resign if the claims are true.
“I find the allegations against Councilmember Granville to be deeply troubling. The nature of these allegations demand that we must have an immediate investigation to determine the relevant facts for this situation. If we find the allegations against Councilman Granville to be true, I would urge him to resign his seat on the city council immediately."
Granville denied the allegations when speaking to the Arizona Republic. KJZZ reached out to Councilman Granville for comment and did not hear back.
The Tempe Preparatory’s legal council provided KJZZ with a statement that read in part:
“[Tempe Preparatory Academy] recently severed its employment relationship with one of its teachers, Mr. Kolby Granville. We want to be clear that the reason for Mr. Granville’s termination has nothing to do with any known misconduct involving current students. We think it is important, however, to take allegations of any improper or unethical behavior seriously and to act swiftly, which we did in this case. We do not comment on personnel matters, so we will not comment on the details of this matter other than to say that we believe we fully and thoroughly investigated the matter and reached the correct result. We take our charge to watch over, care for, and educate our students very seriously, which is the reason for our swift and decisive action.”
Anne Ryman, who covers education for the Arizona Republic, talked with The Show about allegations against Granville.
