Sometimes, the law’s an ass.

As when it becomes nigh-unto-impossible to quickly fire a principal after he’s convicted of a serious felony – because state law requires that he first be offered elaborate due process.

That’s the predicament the Tacoma School District finds itself in with Harold Wright Jr. He was principal of Baker Middle School before July 12, when he was found guilty of third-degree rape, a felony. He remains principal today, because he has refused to give up his position as expected.

In the meantime, Wright, 36, continues to collect his $8,245-a-month salary, something he’s been doing since February, when he was first charged. So far, the district appears to have paid him at least $45,000 for time he wasn’t working. There are not many other jobs where commission of a felony can earn the perpetrator a sweet paid vacation.

But in Washington’s public schools – all public schools, not just Tacoma’s – even convictions for grave crimes do not permit administrators to simply fire the convicts. State law explicitly gives all educators the right to a potentially lengthy process of responses, hearings and appeals.

This is not a quarrel with due process in general. The law protects educators and other public employees from arbitrary, groundless firings by vindictive or incompetent administrators. School districts should not be able to dump employees without good reason and without the employees being allowed to defend themselves.

But a rape conviction – by a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt – is plenty good reason. And Wright has already been allowed to defend himself quite vigorously in criminal justice proceedings far more protective of his rights than than civil due process.

The law does specify crimes that, for good reason, are cause for immediate discharge. All of them involve the injury or sexual exploitation of children – promoting the prostitution of a minor, for example.

Wright’s crime, however, involved the 2004 rape of a 19-year-old woman – slightly older than a minor. The jury found that, at a minimum, he helped a friend forcibly rape her. In this state, that’s apparently not grounds for automatic dismissal from a position of immense moral authority over schoolchildren.

Legislators take note. Administrative due process protections should not be extended to educators who are already convicted of rape, robbery, homicide or other egregious felonies, just because the victims happen to be adults.

Maybe the people who wrote the law considered it unthinkable that principals would commit rape or comparable crimes. In view of Wright’s case, it’s clearly time to rethink the unthinkable.