View Ridge Teacher Removed from School

 Update from Principal Jolly at View Ridge (partial):

One of our teachers, Mr. X, was placed on administrative leave on November 25, 2014, immediately after the Seattle Police Department informed the district that they received a report of possible sexual misconduct involving a teenage female. Allegations of physical contact are not a part of this report. Additionally, no students enrolled at View Ridge Elementary are involved in this investigation.

Parents may understandably be concerned that a person accused of sexual misconduct interacted with their child/children. The district shares these concerns and we are working closely with the Seattle Police Department. Mr. X has surrendered his employee badge and does not have access to district property or district information, including student information. Mr. X has also been instructed not to have any written, electronic, or direct communications with any View Ridge students or return to any Seattle Public School events. If your child has indicated that he or she may have been subject to inappropriate communication by Mr. X, or has information that is relevant to the investigation, please contact Detective Lauren Truscott with the Seattle Police Department at (206) 684-5588<tel:(206)%20684-5588>.


We are working to schedule a parent/guardian information meeting with experts from the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress to share information about talking with children about these sensitive and important topics. The meeting will be held this week and we will notify you as soon as a date and time are set.


I am choosing to not print the teacher's name at this time but will if the investigation finds wrongdoing and/or the case goes to court.

End of update

The Times is reporting this:

A Seattle elementary teacher has been placed on administrative leave after the school district received a report of possible sexual misconduct with a teenage girl.

No View Ridge students were involved in the alleged incident, Jolly said. The teacher was put on leave immediately after the Seattle Police Department told the district they had received a report of the possible misconduct.  The teacher has been instructed to have no contact with students or attend any Seattle Public Schools event, the letter said.

Comments

Anonymous said…
"possible"
"alleged"

What happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?

- Parent
Anonymous said…
Is Terri Skjei still principal at View Ridge? She was also the principal at Broadview Thomas while Shayne Hill was molesting students there.

Not Again
cmj said…
Not Again, Kathy Jolly is the interim principal at View Ridge.

Parent, I agree that there needs to be due process, but what would you have rather seen happen here? The teacher is on administrative leave -- and if that's paid leave (the article didn't specify), then at least s/he isn't losing salary.
Anonymous said…
Interim principal? When did Skjei leave View Ridge and where is she now?

Not Again
cmj said…
Not Again, Skjei has been on sick leave for the past few weeks.
Lefty said…
Principal is on "medical leave", assistant principal is on leave, and the accused teacher is on leave. And the parents were told that all three are unrelated. Really?!

Supposedly there was no physical contact between the teacher and the teenager. The accusations are that he was communicating in an inappropriate way with the teen. Assumption is that he was texting her....if it really happened.
I only put this up as informational since a couple of VR parents had been wondering what was happening.

But given some of the comments, we'll end the discussion here.

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