Former coach back in class

A Spokane Valley teacher and former girls softball coach is back in the classroom more than two years after being accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.

Dana Schmerer, a North Pines Middle School teacher, was reinstated last week after reaching an agreement with the state that allowed him to keep his teaching license.

Schmerer had been the subject of a months-long state investigation into allegations he had a sexual encounter with a student while coaching softball for West Valley High School in 2005. He also worked at North Pines in the Central Valley School District at the time.

Schmerer’s coaching contract with West Valley was terminated, and he was put on paid leave from his teaching duties at the Central Valley middle school while the state continued its investigation. The school district later terminated Schmerer’s contract.

As a result of the state settlement, Central Valley school officials also settled with Schmerer and reinstated his teaching position at North Pines, said Melanie Rose, district spokeswoman. Details of the agreement were not available.

While he was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office in 2005, the state later concluded Schmerer’s teaching license should be revoked.

He appealed the state’s findings to an informal professional conduct committee in Olympia, and the committee upheld the revocation. Schmerer appealed a second time and was scheduled in October to appear before an administrative law judge in Spokane.

The hearing was postponed after a witness set to testify changed her story, said Charles Schreck, the director of the Office of Professional Practices.

The Spokesman-Review has requested, but not yet received, documents that may reveal what that witness had previously said and how her story changed. The witness was a West Valley student at the time the allegations were raised but apparently is not the girl with whom Schmerer was accused of having the inappropriate relationship.

“Due to evidence that surfaced, we entered into a negotiated settlement,” Schreck said. “He did agree to a reprimand for his actions.”

The order of reprimand states that Schmerer transported female athletes in his personal vehicle without consent from parents or the school.

The allegations surfaced in April 2005 when a parent volunteer complained to the West Valley School District after seeing Schmerer and the teenage girl emerge from a darkened athletic equipment shed.

In a police report taken in 2005, another WV student said the alleged victim told her that she and the coach had a sexual encounter.

The alleged victim, who graduated in 2005, repeatedly denied the relationship. According to records provided by the state, the victim did tell authorities the teacher had been to her home several times without her parents present, that the two talked on the telephone about personal matters, and that he often gave her rides to and from practice.

Previous state records alleged Schmerer had inappropriately touched members of the softball team, made inappropriate comments and engaged in inappropriate conversations with girls which “included sexual references and language.”