MONROE — The wanton heart, or maybe the lust, may have made him a felon.
An English teacher at Monroe High stands accused of beginning intimate relationships with female students from his classroom.
A Monroe Police detective wrote he developed an eight-month sexual relationship with one 17-year-old student in 2017 that continued after graduation.
Monroe Police are certain there are more students he’s involved himself with. They say it is a pattern.
This February, the district put him on administrative leave on concerns he began a relationship with another student at the high school.
Things unwound in May after the initial former student, now 24, agreed to speak with detectives. Police arrested him June 25. The next day, Everett District Court Judge Anthony Howard found probable cause for two felony charges of sexual misconduct with a minor.
The teacher, 53, has not been formally charged in court, the district court confirmed Thursday, June 27. Because of this, the Tribune is withholding his name from print because the paper does not run names until after being charged.
The judge determined $250,000 for the teacher’s bail. The teacher bailed out.
A next court date was not yet set as of June 27, a representative at the court said.
It was known he’d stay in touch with students.
He invited some to his home for dinner parties, and would meet up with them after graduation, the Monroe Police detective wrote.
For the initial student, he wrote love notes on a typewriter and slip them in books he’d give as gifts. Things began her junior year. In class, he specified her to read “Lolita,” a novel of an adult infatuated with an underage girl. His attention made her feel special, detectives wrote. Before that year’s Bearcats graduated in June, they’d begun having sex, and began doing so frequently until the relationship ceased that winter.
It was an affair and his girlfriend was still in the picture.
If charges go through, one could say this was a long time coming.
Detectives began working this case in late 2021 on a police referral. The woman had disclosed to a counselor a claim she had the sexual relationship with the teacher while underage.
However, police couldn’t nail down an arrest at the time. The woman declined to assist.
They kept working the case until she came forward in May.
The two counts are tied to two dates police have proof of intercourse while she was underage from April to her 18th birthday in August 2017.
The Monroe School District is not commenting, a district spokeswoman said. He is an employee still on administrative leave.
The district does, though, do background checks on staff before hiring and has reporting tools for concerns. It has an online tip reporting system called Vector Alert available.
“The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority. We encourage students, families, staff, and community members to report any safety concerns, including those related to employee misconduct, so we can investigate them promptly,” district spokeswoman Erin Zacharda said.
