MARIN CO. (KRON, BCN)–The principal of a private school in Ross has resigned after authorities found him in a hotel room with drugs and a 21-year-old woman last week.
Branson School’s Board of Trustees said Thomas Woodrow Price, known as “Woody Price,” announced the resignation in a statement to the school’s families Monday.
“I can only say the first time any Branson employee or trustee knew of his arrest was when the local media descended on the campus at about noon on Monday,” said the board’s chair, David Golden in a statement. “His resignation was tendered and accepted before anyone could speak with him about the incident.”
The school’s communications director Will Kennedy said Price started at the school in the spring of 2006. The independent, co-ed college preparatory school has 320 students in grades 9-12.
Price, 54, of Ross, was arrested Friday at the Hyatt Place hotel in Rancho Cordova on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine for sale and possession of cocaine.
Sacramento authorities say he posted bail on Saturday and was released from jail.
Authorities say the woman, 21-year-old Brittney Hall, 21, of Elk Grove, also was arrested on suspicion of the drug offenses.
The sheriff’s office received a call shortly after noon from a man who said he was Hall’s boyfriend. The man asked deputies to check on his girlfriend, who was at a hotel with an older man who was giving her drugs, Ramos said.
Authorities said Price answered the hotel room door where deputies saw a woman unresponsive in bed. According to authorities, Price said the woman was all right but she did not respond until she was physically shook and awakened.
Sheriff’s deputies said the quantity of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and prescription drugs in the room indicated they were being sold.
Deputies said Price had turned 54 the night before. Deputies said he and Hall had a “casual relationship” and he even alluded to her as his “girlfriend.”
Hall did not need medical attention and she and Price were booked into the Sacramento County Jail, deputies said.
Golden thanked the Branson families for their patience and understanding of the incident. “I am confident that our greatest strength – the bonds between our faculty and students – will help us in the coming weeks and months as we work to heal the wounds that so many of us feel today,” he said.
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