Middle School Special Education Teacher Charged with Rape

The teacher, Darren Hunter of Madison Middle School, was charged in early Feb. 2022 with third-degree rape for an event that occurred in August 2021. The incident did not happen on district property nor during school hours.

I had been tracking this story since a reader alerted me to it and, luckily for me, the West Seattle Blog has actual journalists who tracked down the entire story quickly.

Beyond the obvious issue of the actual crime is the fact that SPS didn't know about it until this week (and I suspect that was me asking questions). According to SPS Communications:

  • The individual who has been charged is currently on administrative leave, which means they still are an employee. A determination of future status will be made once the case is concluded. However, just to note, that means that Hunter was in the classroom from Feb until just this week. 
  • The district has an agreement with local law enforcement to work together on cases involving child sexual abuse or assault. In all other instances, the district is not notified directly. Isn't rape a form of assault? If someone employed at SPS is charged with a felony involving the physical hurting of another person, the district didn't ask to be notified about that? 
  • SPS is working on self-reporting guidelines, which would be a change in working conditions and be bargained across all labor partners. Is that in the new contract? `

From the West Seattle Blog story (bold mine):

Hunter, 51, was charged in February with third-degree rape because of an incident at his home in Kent in August of last year involving a then-43-year-old woman he had been dating. The court documents say she contacted police in November to say he had raped her in August, via sexual contact to which she did not give consent. 

4:30 PM UPDATE: Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson Casey McNerthney says Hunter pleaded guilty this afternoon to a reduced charge of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation, a gross misdemeanor. 

McNerthney explains: “After the filing of charges, the defense provided the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office with additional information, including text communications between the victim/survivor and the defendant that occurred after the assault. Based upon this new information and after receiving defense mitigation, the KCPAO believed that a reduction of charge was appropriate. Senior Deputy Prosecutors twice met with the victim/survivor and her advocate to discuss the case and the reduction in charge prior to extending an offer to defense. The victim and an advocate were in court today for Mr. Hunter’s guilty plea.” He will be sentenced later this year.

So where does that leave the situation for SPS? Mr. Hunter may get probation or 30 days in jail; I don't know the sentencing guidelines for this kind of thing. 

It sounds like the texts that the King County Prosecutor's office found must have seemed to indicate it was a date gone terribly wrong but should he be placed back in the classroom? What will parents of students in his classroom think?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I have to think the law is cut and dry about what crimes are acceptable for unsupervised access to children? And, if he spends any time in jail, isn’t that job abandonment and possibly grounds for separation? Wouldn’t it be handy if the union had a policy whereby they need not have to go to the mat for this?

What a Mess
9/21/22, 9:22 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
No, I don't think the law is cut and dried. SPS Communications indicated to me that a crime would have to be in someway tied to a child and it isn't in this case. They also said something about "self-reporting guidelines" but that would have to be negotiated with the union. I'm guess that won't be until the next contract.

I am hearing from several parents that they don't believe SPS JUST found out. They may have known and decided to wait and see how it played out.

But the bottom line is that this is middle school. Those kids now know about it and maybe he could teach in another school but I'm pretty sure the kids either won't respect him or may fear him. You can't have that in a classroom.
9/22/22, 4:07 PM
Anonymous said…
What is happening with this case?

https://www.union-bulletin.com/seattle_times/former-seattle-schools-employee-charged-in-molestation-of-elementary-school-student/article_6d54d774-145d-5e52-bc27-4ccf5256e110.html
9/24/22, 2:05 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more