Teacher ousted for porn, still paid

A Spokane teacher is still being paid seven months after he resigned for viewing large amounts of sexually explicit material on his North Central High School computer.

According to records obtained Wednesday by The Spokesman-Review, Matthew Wakabayashi resigned from his teaching post in October. He will be paid through the end of the school year. His annual salary is about $53,000.

Wakabayashi, who started teaching at NC in 1974, used his school computer to order material that school officials deemed pornographic – including a pair of used pantyhose and explicit videos – and had the items mailed to his workplace, the records show.

When Spokane Public Schools officials accepted his immediate resignation, they agreed to let Wakabayashi use a combination of sick leave and paid administrative leave to fulfill the unused portion of his teaching contract.

“The way the state law is constructed regarding teacher contracts, once a contract is offered it must be honored for the remainder of the year,” said Barb Wright, associate superintendent of human resources.

By accepting his resignation the district ensured that Wakabayashi was immediately removed from teaching, and the district avoided a lengthy investigation, officials said.

“When that happens, the employee continues to receive pay until the matter is resolved by a hearing officer through a very lengthy legal process, usually lasting 18 months,” Wright said.

Wakabayashi’s inappropriate computer use was discovered by the school district’s Internet filtering software, the records show.

According to the records, he visited hundreds of pornographic sites on his school computer, usually during school hours.

Wakabayashi is not charged with a crime.

The Web sites he allegedly visited portray adults performing sex acts, not children. In some cases, even the names of the Web sites are explicit.

Wakabayashi also used his district e-mail account to correspond with several companies requesting information about their products, which were later shipped to the school.

In an e-mail sent during school hours, six days before his resignation, for instance, Wakabayshi asked for details about the product he was buying – a pair of pantyhose supposedly worn by a porn model named Carley Marie.

The report says Wakabayshi had the pantyhose sent to the school, along with other items like explicit catalogs of DVDs and videos.

The amount of explicit images and material found was the “largest amount of stuff ever” collected during a district investigation, school officials said.

A call to Wakabayashi’s home went unanswered Wednesday.

A state investigation will determine whether Wakabayashi keeps his teaching certificate. According to state officials, that investigation is ongoing.