Text message causes demotion of Nolan staff member

A staff member at Nolan Middle School has been demoted after an investigation showed she encouraged a student to harm a peer.

Wende Pendleton-Wicks was working as a student support specialist at Nolan Middle School when she was temporarily assigned to the Manatee County School District’s Office of Student Assignment in January as the school district conducted an investigation of the incident.

The investigation showed that Pendleton-Wicks exchanged text messages with a former student while her son was in the hospital with a broken arm. The student offered retaliation against the student who injured her son, saying “I’ll pick (him) up and drop him,”  and Pendleton-Wicks said, “Please do.”

In interviews with a district investigator, Pendleton-Wicks said she later advised the student not to take any action and said she made the comment while emotional about her son’s condition.

Pendelton-Wicks has been demoted to a substitute teacher with the school at this time.