Educators Will Learn To See ‘Red Flags’ Teacher-Sex Incident Forces District To Train Supervisors

Sat., Oct. 25, 1997

Associated Press

First a 35-year-old married schoolteacher admitted having sex with a 13-year-old former student and gave birth to a baby he fathered.

This month a 44-year-old English teacher and soccer coach was suspended after a 15-year-old girl, a soccer player he coached, was found hiding in the back seat when he tried to drive away from a grade school where police found his car parked at 1:40 a.m. on a Saturday morning.

Now Highline School District Superintendent Joseph McGeehan is requiring that supervisors be trained to detect “red flags” indicating inappropriate teacher-student contact.

In addition, the Highline Education Association probably will have speakers explain to the district’s 1,000 teachers “what’s appropriate (behavior) and what’s not,” president Susan Murphy said Thursday.

“It’s hard to believe they don’t know already,” Murphy said.

The teacher caught with the student in his car Oct. 11 has not been arrested or charged with a crime but remains suspended with pay.

Police Cmdr. John O’Leary said investigators were interviewing people who might “shed some light on the relationship.”

The teacher and the girl were fully clothed when they were found, nor was there any evidence of alcohol or drugs, O’Leary said.

Three days later, on Oct. 14, a Normandy Park man filed a temporary anti-harassment protection order against the teacher on behalf of a girl who is a minor. A hearing on the request is scheduled Wednesday in King County Superior Court.

The teacher, an Air Force veteran, has taught in the suburban school system since 1983.

Earlier this year, Mary Kay LeTourneau, a sixth-grade teacher at Shorewood Elementary, admitted she had sex with a former student. She has pleaded guilty to child rape and faces sentencing next month.

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