Indianapolis school leader suspended over sexually explicit email

Ryan Gall has worked at Victory College Prep since 2008. Gall, shown here on Friday, Dec. 2, 2022, is the executive director of the charter school. (Elizabeth Gabriel / WFYI)

The leader of one of Indiana’s largest charter schools was suspended for two weeks without pay in May and required to participate in training after the school board learned of a personal email he sent two years ago.

Victory College Prep Executive Director Ryan Gall sent the email in August 2022 to people attending a camping trip—including several school staff members. In the email, which includes trip logistics, Gall rates the people camping based on their willingness to drink and party and he writes pages of sexually explicit comments that appear intended as jokes.

For example, Gall describes the campground as the only place “where exposing yourself to minors is not only allowed, it’s encouraged….” And he mentions that he went camping a decade ago, and those who attended are “still telling ghost stories about co-workers oral prowess on our collective genitals….”

Gall sent the email after school hours from a personal account. In the text of the email itself, Gall described it as “for personal entertainment purposes,” and he warned readers not to discuss it during work hours.

But Gall mentions more than 10 people in the 2022 email biographies who were Victory College Prep employees that calendar year, according to a WFYI analysis of state records.

In response to questions from WFYI, the Victory College Prep board said that the trip was not “hosted, sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise sanctioned” by the school, and it did not know how many of the attendees were school staff. The board said the school investigated and that based on interviews with people who went on the camping trip, no students or children attended.

The board learned of Gall’s 2022 email from an anonymous complaint. On April 13, 2024, a person who identifies themselves as a former employee of the school forwarded a copy of the email to several Victory College Prep board members. The whistleblower wrote that Gall’s email “contains HIGHLY inappropriate, homophobic, and misogynistic language used to describe past and current employees and children.”

The school hired an outside law firm to investigate whether Gall’s 2022 email “was part of a pattern of behavior or a regrettable lapse of judgment made in a moment of time,” according to the Victory College Prep board.

The board ultimately suspended Gall without pay for two weeks. But it kept him at the helm as executive director of the 1,000-student school on the southeast side of Indianapolis.

After learning of the email, the school board also made changes to personnel policies.

The board statement said that “members were surprised and troubled” by the contents of Gall’s 2022 email. But the board believes its response—including the discipline Gall faced and changes in school policies—was “appropriate.” Gall has the “full support” of both the board and the school’s executive leadership team, the statement said.

In a statement to WFYI, Gall wrote: “I am deeply and genuinely sorry to anyone negatively impacted by my actions or words related to the personal communication delivered to my friends about our planned trip in the summer of 2022.”

Gall, whose salary is $175,000 per year, has worked for the school since 2008, and he was instrumental in its successful separation from a national management company.

‘No such thing as a secret’

The school board emphasized in its statement to WFYI that Gall sent the message from his personal email outside of work hours and that the recipients included people who were not affiliated with the school.

But behavior that happens outside of a workplace can still be relevant to work performance, said Daniel Grundmann, a senior lecturer at Indiana University and a veteran HR administrator.

Grundmann, who does not comment on specific cases, said the more power someone has, the more it matters how they behave outside of work. It can shape the image of an organization, and it can contribute to a harassing work environment, he said.

“Whether we like it or not, those two lives aren’t really completely separate,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a secret.”

WFYI obtained Gall’s original email, the whistleblower complaint, and other records of the investigation through public record requests. Prior to the school investigation, WFYI also received a copy of Gall’s email from an anonymous source.

WFYI is publishing an excerpt of Gall’s email with names and identifying information removed. WFYI is not publishing the full email because it includes “bios” of people that include their names and identifiable information.

Investigation and response

The school board investigation was conducted by Church Church Hittle and Antrim, an Indiana law firm. It included 16 interviews.

The Victory College Prep board declined to tell WFYI how much it cost. But documents provided in response to a public record request show that Church Church Hittle and Antrim billed the school more than $22,000 for services between April 13, when the board received the anonymous report, and May 2, when the investigation concluded.

The school board told staff about the investigation. In an email May 3, board chair Joseph Myers wrote that the anonymous complaint had sparked concerns about the “the use of unprofessional language and its impact on staff culture.” Myers added that the board found that Gall “showed poor judgment.”

But Myers said that the school had no records of prior personnel complaints against Gall.

“Weighing all provided evidence and considering the totality of the circumstances, with VCP’s mission, values, and commitment to restorative practices at the forefront, the Board has unanimously determined that Mr. Gall will continue as VCP Executive Director with our body’s full faith and backing,” Myers wrote.

In addition to suspending Gall, the board required him to undergo outside training “that includes but is not necessarily limited to workplace sensitivity and acceptable employee engagement practices….” That training is ongoing, according to the school board.

Myers’ letter to staff said that Gall was also asked to make efforts to apologize and “repair any harm” to members of the school community. The board told WFYI that Gall participated in meetings with people in the community, both in groups and one on one.

Gall told WFYI in a statement that he has attempted to restore his relationships, and “I am sincerely heartbroken that any of my coworkers at any time felt unsafe as a member of our team.”

Victory College Prep also changed some school policies as a result of the investigation. The school said it created an anonymous reporting system for school staff, committed to having exit interviews with all employees leaving the school, and conducted “retooled” anti-harassment training.

The school also adopted a new fraternization policy that requires staff to report to human resources social relationships that “may impact or create the perception of such impact on workplace dynamics, job responsibilities, or the ability to complete them.”

As a charter school, Victory College Prep is publicly funded and overseen by a private, nonprofit board. It is authorized to operate by the Indianapolis Mayor’s Office.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Education Innovation said the school board notified the office of the anonymous complaint, the results of its investigation, and the steps it took. “Charter school boards are responsible for addressing the personnel matters of the schools they govern,” the statement said.

Parent responds

Victory College Prep was less transparent with parents and guardians than it was with staff. According to the board, the school notified families in May that a “school network leader” had faced “disciplinary actions” and that it was adopting new employee policies as a result of a “personnel matter.”

But Justin Butterfield, who has two children in the elementary school, was shocked when WFYI shared a copy of the camping email. He said that Gall should lose his education license.

“You’re supposed to be a head of a school and you’re talking like this,” Butterfield said. “I don’t want my kids around him.”

Butterfield was particularly bothered by two lines where Gall mentions children. In one section, Gall wrote that a decade ago, “We were at a roadside campsite where you could pee on children and burn Halloween witches in a barrel fire of kerosene.” The other was the section when Gall describes the campground as the only place “where exposing yourself to minors is not only allowed, it’s encouraged….”

“It makes me sick,” Butterfield said. “You don’t joke about kids. It’s one thing you do not joke about.”

Workplace culture

WFYI reached out to several current and former teachers at the school. Most declined to speak on the record or did not respond. In an email in April, Myers instructed current staff to refer the media to the school’s chief development officer.

Joel Karl, a former teacher at Victory College Prep, told WFYI that Gall’s email did not reflect the culture of the school. Karl said he did not go on the 2022 trip, but he went on prior camping trips. And he was one of the people mentioned in the email.

“The camping trip was a trip among friends,” Karl told WFYI in a message on LinkedIn. “Most of us worked together, but we completely understood that the emails before, the conversations had during camping, and the activities during camping were conducted as friends.”

Gall drew a clear distinction between his role as a friend on the camping trip and his work at the school, Karl wrote.

“If anything, Ryan Gall held us all to incredibly stringent professional standards,” he added. “He flipped the switch when he was at work – the nonsense side of Gall was reserved for friend time, not work time.”

The executive leadership team at Victory College Prep also showed support for Gall in a joint statement to WFYI.

“Our executive team works alongside Ryan days, nights, and weekends to create better learning outcomes for students in the classroom,…” the statement said. It continued, “In his personal and professional life, we know and experience Ryan as a man of high integrity and gracious nature. We trust his leadership and intentions as our school network’s leading executive.”

What’s in the email?

The roughly 11,000-word email from Gall had the subject line “The Most In-TENTS 36 Hours – CAMPING BIOS AND FINAL LOGISTICS.” It includes a description of what to expect on the trip and a series of biographies of “campers” that include sexually explicit comments. It also has several pages of what it describes as old biographies of “campers” from prior years.

In the email, Gall rates the people going camping on a 10-point scale. Those receiving the lowest ratings are described as “posers” who will be minimalist drinkers, bring their knitting needles and go to bed early. Those with the highest ratings are called the “BIG D–K ENERGY GANG.”

In one of the biographies, Gall wrote that a person on the trip is sad that new people “don’t like him and won’t submit to a three day bender in the woods with him – He thought it would sweeten the offer by saying, ‘it’s okay, I’ll be a sober companion you will share a tent with and I WON’T violate you when you pass out.’ (yeah right boomer).”

Gall’s email begins with a warning not to discuss it during work hours. Sharing the email with other people “will result in your permanent removal,” he wrote.

The whistleblower report to the board describes that warning as a threat to terminate staff who shared the email with others. In response to WFYI, the board denied that the email contained threats to fire employees.

But Gall was clearly aware of the inflammatory nature of his email. Gall also wrote in it that the camping trip is a social media blackout. “Seriously, I like my job and don’t want some newbie f—ing that up….”

WFYI education team editor Eric Weddle and investigative reporter Lee V. Gaines contributed to this story.