4 Horry Co. families file lawsuits against principal, former teacher at center of abuse case

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) – The legal battle isn’t over for an elementary school principal and a former teacher who were once at the center of a child abuse investigation.

Four families filed lawsuits on Friday, which claim their special needs children were victims of former Ocean Bay Elementary School Grace McColgan’s abuse and Principal Rebecca Schroyer’s alleged cover-up.

The lawsuits accuse Horry County Schools, McColgan and Schroyer of gross negligence, negligent misrepresentation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.

“Shockingly, no one with the Horry County School District ever warned parents that their children had been harmed and/or were at risk of being harmed, despite the School District’s own investigation resulting in McColgan being suspended for six (6) weeks,” according to the lawsuit.

Horry County police arrested McColgan and Schroyer in November 2022. McColgan was charged with six counts of unlawful conduct toward a child, while Schroyer was charged with failure to report child abuse or neglect.

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Witnesses came forward and said they saw several instances of abuse by McColgan, including rubbing hand sanitizer in a child’s open wound. In one of the lawsuits filed, the parents claim McColgan dumped their son out of a chair when he wouldn’t move fast enough for her.

McColgan has since pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office dismissed the charges against Schroyer.

But before their arrests in November 2022, the lawsuit alleges that Schroyer personally investigated complaints against McColgan during the 2021-2022 school year. The documents claim that Schroyer received information about abusive conduct, but didn’t make any report to law enforcement.

Then in another instance, on Feb. 1, 2022, the lawsuit alleges that McColgan was caught on video punching a student in the hallway. It claims that the district’s Human Resources Department conducted an investigation and McColgan was suspended for six weeks with full pay and benefits.

The parents allege in the lawsuit that they were not informed about the abuse allegations and the district only referred to it as “unprofessional conduct.”

“When parents inquired on MCCOLGAN’s whereabouts during her ‘administrative leave’, Defendant DISTRICT withheld providing any of the inquiring parents knowledge of what MCCOLGAN’s as ‘unprofessional conduct’ consisted of,” according to the lawsuit.

Once the six weeks were over, McColgan was allowed to return to teaching moderate/severe special education students, the lawsuit states.

The families are requesting a jury trial in the cases and asking for damages that will be determined by a jury.

WMBF News reached out to Horry County Schools about the lawsuits, and a spokesperson said the district does not comment on pending litigation.

At this point, defense attorneys have not been listed for McColgan or Schroyer. We have attempted to contact the two but those attempts were unsuccessful.

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