Teacher resigns after affair

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. – A longtime teacher has resigned after admitting he had a sexual affair with a student with whom he fathered a child, school officials said.

In a resignation letter submitted Jan. 30, Gary Vetter, 47, who taught agriculture for 24 years at South Kitsap High School, asserted that the affair began after the student’s graduation in June 1994 and denied violating any school policies. He received $48,619 in severance pay.

The former student, however, told investigators the affair began during her junior year, and she provided a handwritten note indicating that the two got involved while she was still a student. A handwriting expert said the note was written by Vetter.

The former student also said she was alone with Vetter in his hotel room during a Future Farmers of America convention in Kansas City, a claim Vetter denied. Vetter did not return calls from the Kitsap Sun newspaper.

He admitted that in December, shortly after he was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, he sent an unsigned letter telling the former student that unless she lied to investigators, he would send a videotape of them together to her husband, school officials said.

In a letter to the state school superintendent’s office, South Kitsap Superintendent Beverly J. Cheney wrote that the note violated an order not to contact any former students.

The former student told Cheney she first reported the affair in 1996 but found local school officials unhelpful.