Accused coach had history of complaints

A 30-year-old Stevens County schoolteacher and coach accused of having sex with several female students was allowed to keep teaching two years after concerns were raised about his behavior.

Robert M. Swalstad, a teacher at Columbia High School in Hunters, Wash., was first counseled about his inappropriate behavior with students in 2003, records state.

Swalstad was arrested in June on suspicion of third-degree rape of a child, after a student came forward and said she was pregnant.

He was booked into the Stevens County Jail, but was later released and is now living with his parents in Wyoming.

Stevens County Prosecutor Jerry Wetle said Swalstad’s behavior is still under investigation, and no formal charges have been filed.

In addition to a criminal investigation, the state also investigated Swalstad’s conduct and ordered the revocation of his teaching license in October, said Charlie Schreck, director of the Office of Professional Practices for the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Swalstad had 30 days to appeal the revocation, and has not done so, Schreck said.

“If he hasn’t appealed by end of the day today, then we’ll go ahead and send out final notification that his certificate has been revoked,” Schreck said Thursday.

An Office of Professional Practices employee said late Thursday afternoon that no such appeal had been received.

Swalstad was hired in 2002 to teach physical education and to coach girls’ volleyball at the 220-student school district just west of the Spokane Indian Reservation. He went on to coach basketball and track.

According to school district records provided to The Spokesman-Review this week through a public records request, concerns about his relationships with female students began a year after he was hired.

In October of that year, Superintendent Paul Turner talked with Swalstad about having female students at his home alone, and about a student who reportedly put her head in the teacher’s lap on a school bus while traveling to a game, the records state.

Also that month, Turner talked with Swalstad regarding parents’ concerns about his inappropriate relationship with students. Specifically that he allowed female students to spray themselves with his cologne and rummage through his personal items, the records state.

Between October 2003 and March of this year, several written and oral complaints were documented concerning Swalstad’s inappropriate behavior with students, the records show.

In May 2004, Turner wrote that he “counseled him about not coaching volleyball and track since there were girls involved in both.” Swalstad then resigned from coaching both sports.

Later that year, there “was a girl that got pregnant and rumors were that Bobby was the father,” Turner also wrote in the records.

In December, Swalstad was counseled by high school Principal Chuck Wyborney, who wrote in a memo that the two discussed, “not transporting kids in your rig, especially female students, moving your desk into clear view by the door and ways to avoid being surrounded by high school girls in public.”

Some female students said that Swalstad had not touched them or acted inappropriately, and that they considered him a “friend” and “father figure,” the records state.

Swalstad was not put on paid administrative leave until March of this year, when several students came forward and reported the teacher for “messing around with high school girls.”

A criminal investigation involving the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office was begun at that time, as well as the state investigation.

According to a statement provided to police by a 17-year-old student, the teacher allegedly told the boy that he had sex with the boy’s cousin.

“I didn’t know what to think, I didn’t want to get in trouble,” the boy wrote. “Mr. Swalstad had sex with (name redacted) at his house when his wife was gone.”

Swalstad also told the boy about a different girl, with whom he allegedly had sex in the middle of the basketball court “to give us luck for the upcoming game,” the records said.

A former student also admitted to police that she had sex with Swalstad, but not until she was 18 and had graduated.

The girl, now 19, told police that Swalstad told her not to tell anyone. The girl also alleged that Swalstad asked for a pair of her underwear.

“He also told me that when he had sex with girls, he liked to keep their underwear to remember them by,” the girl wrote.

Swalstad admitted to district officials in May that he had sex with at least one girl, but the name identifying which girl was redacted from the records.

He was arrested in June when a student told a school counselor that she was pregnant with Swalstad’s child.

Swalstad was arrested at that time, and resigned from his teaching post in July. Swalstad refused to comment when reached by phone in Wyoming on Thursday.