Ex-teacher’s aide fathers daughter of teenage helper

A man who worked as a teacher’s aide at Salk Middle School for several years has fathered a child with a high school student who sometimes helped him with basketball coaching duties.

Titus Epefanio, 27, showed up on the birth announcement of a baby born May 6 to Brianna Sturgeon, a 17-year-old girl and former Shadle Park High School student.

Epefanio said they plan to get married.

The girl’s family never called police or officially complained to the school district. Officially, there’s nothing in Epefanio’s record to prevent him from working with children again because there’s no record of any complaints made against him for any wrongdoings, said Barb Wright, district human resource assistant superintendent.

In fact, it’s not a crime for a 16-year-old girl to have consensual sex with a 27-year-old-man as long as he has no authority over the girl, according to the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

“What people find morally unacceptable is not necessarily what’s criminal,” said Ed Hay, supervisor of the special assault unit for the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

It would be a different story had Epefanio had relations with a 16-year-old girl he coached or taught in class, Hay said.

The state statute is directed at an abuse of authority, like a coach over a player or an employer over an employee. The girl in this case appears to have offered her coaching help on her own time and not through an organized school program. The district has no record of her helping with coaching as part of a school service project or job, said Spokane Public Schools spokeswoman Terren Roloff.

Epefanio resigned in June last year after working eight years as a teacher’s aide, a non-certified position. He added that he quit voluntarily and was not urged to leave the school. Eleven months later, his baby was born.

Epefanio conceded he met the girl while he was a Spokane Public Schools employee. He said the sexual relationship began with the girl, who was then 16, after he quit his job.

“It wasn’t while coaching, and it wasn’t a situation while working with the district,” Epefanio said.

Family tensions have made the last few weeks difficult, Epefanio admits.

The woman who could become his future mother-in-law said she will not let Epefanio into her home, where her daughter and new granddaughter stay.

“I only hope they don’t plan to marry,” said Roberta Summers, Sturgeon’s mother.

“He was a role model for a lot of kids,” Summers said. “There’s a lot of kids at Shadle who don’t see him that way anymore.”

Sturgeon declined to be interviewed for this story. Summers said she never called police or officially complained to the school district because she didn’t know about the relationship until her daughter became pregnant in August.

“I was kind of blindsided,” Summers said.

Summers said her daughter met Epefanio while she was a student at Salk. Once she started attending Shadle, she helped him coach basketball at Salk.

“All of her other friends started partying,” Summers said. “I thought she was staying out of trouble.”

Epefanio feels like he has been cast as the bad guy.

“In all actuality, I’m a nice guy,” he said. “I may not make the most intelligent decisions in the world, but I’m not a monster by any means.”

Epefanio said he now works in a Spokane casino but declined to say which one.

“People can stand back and throw stones all day long. I really don’t know how to explain it,” he said. “I’m in love with her (Sturgeon). I’m in love with our child we just had. We plan on getting married and spending our lives together.”

Epefanio suggested his former supervisor at Salk would vouch for his character. Calls to his former supervisor were referred to the principal, Mark Gorman, who said his heart goes out to the family.

“It’s a difficult thing for the parents and the school and everyone involved,” Gorman said. “We’re kind of shocked by the whole thing.”

Epefanio worked with special education students, Gorman said.

“There’s no reason for us to believe that anything inappropriate happened here while he was employed here,” Gorman said.

Epefanio was married once before, in September 1998, but divorced nine months later.

To work in Spokane Public Schools, Epefanio underwent a required 50-state background check for convictions and recent arrests, said Kim Schmanke, spokesperson for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Epefanio’s record is clean.

“It may come down that this person could have made a very bad choice,” Schmanke said.

“I’m sure the district won’t be unscathed in the views of some people. … The employer also takes it in the shins.”

Epefanio said he’s proud of his record of working with students.

“You can go check all the work I’ve done for kids. I worked in special education as long as I can remember. I poured my heart and soul into children. I was great at it. I did an awesome job,” Epefanio said. “This will probably throw a shadow over everything I did. … I know I will get a bad reputation for this.”