Teacher Smackdown

In Paris, Illinois, high-school teacher Fred W. Fischer, 28, is charged with criminal sexual assault after being arrested for having sex with a 17-year-old female student. According to Paris police, the sexual relationship with the teenaged student appeared to be consensual.

However, in Illinois, such a relationship is illegal even though the legal age of consent in Illinois is 17. However, because Fischer had a position of authority over the girl, 18 is the legal age of consent.

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Victoria Blevins, 23, a physical education teacher at Monroe Township High School in New Jersey was arrested on charges of sexual assault and official misconduct with an underage female student for a sexual relationship that took place last spring. The victim, a 17-year-old high school student, was not taught by Blevins. The young woman no longer attends the high school.

The girl’s mother notified high school officials of instant messages that she found on a laptop. School officials immediately alerted the police who conducted a joint investigation with the prosectors office.

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In Livermore, California, police arrested gymnastics instructor, Carlos Amaro (a.k.a. Julian Amaro) on suspicion of molesting one of his underage male students.

Amaro, 25, is a national acrobatic gymnastics champion and the owner and head instructor at West Coast Acrobatics. He previously worked as an instructor for Gymfinity Gymnastics. Both studios are in Livermore.

He has been competing nationally since 1997. In 2005, he finished first in the National Team Trials, and earned him and his partner a spot on the U.S. national team.

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In Long Island, karate instructor James Bonfiglio, 37, was arrested for sexually abusing a 13-year-old male student. He is being charged with criminal sexual act, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Bonfiglio is the owner of Excel Karate Academy in Ronkonkoma, New York, and has access to hundreds of kids. The sexual abuse took place in Bonfiglio’s apartment, in an apartment complex where many children live. Bonfiglio frequently volunteered with children’s organizations including the Suffolk County Division of Handicapped Services and at an after-school program run by the Suffolk County Police Athletic League in the Connetquot district school.

He passed a criminal history and sexual registry check before he was allowed to teach in the program. He has no previous criminal record according to his lawyer.

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In Middletown Connecticut, Rev. Verle Robinson, 55, was arrested on third-degree sexual assault and impairing the morals of a minor after trying to sexually assault the 13-year-old friend of one of his daughters during a sleepover.

Trying to rape one of his daughter’s friends while she slept in the same house? What a monster!

That night, Robinson came into the room where his daughter’s friend was sleeping alone. He pinned her down, exposed himself to her, and rubbed himself against her shorts. The girl said that Robinson asked her if she ever had sex before and that he wanted her to “stick it in.” She struggled to get Robinson off of her.

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In Lincoln Nebraska, power-lifting coach and youth volunteer, James C. Hart, 48, is jailed on charges of possessing and creating a child pornography video.

Hart used a MySpace account to persuade underage girls to take nude pictures of themselves and send them to him. Using the screen name “J-C,” his profile said he was 18-years-old and had over 1,000 MySpace friends.

A mom who found sexually explicit images of her 16-year-old daughter on the family PC started the investigation. (Way to go mom!) She found out that Hart was coercing her daughter to send him more and more pictures via his MySpace account.

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In Omaha, Nebraska, head varsity softball coach Jodi Reeder, 29, is facing felony charges for her fourth drunken-driving arrest. Reeder was stopped by police because she was driving the wrong way on a one-way street in downtown Omaha. Her blood alcohol level was 0.189 percent, more than twice the legal limit for drunken driving.

Reeder is a PE teacher at Omaha’s Central High School. She has not been at work since her arrest.

According to court records, Reeder’s was arrested twice in 2003 and once in 1998 for DUI. She was charged with a misdemeanor in all three cases. However, now that Reeder has a fourth DUI, she may be charged with a felony. A person with a felony conviction can’t hold a teaching license in Nebraska.

She’s free on $15,000 bond. If convicted, Reeder could serve one to 20 years in jail and pay up to a $25,000 fine.

Jodi Reeder, DUI

In Edgewater, Maryland, Christopher Thomas Newman, 31, a South River High School teacher and assistant football coach was charged with two counts of sex abuse of a minor and two counts of fourth-degree sex offense. He had fondled a female student at school, put his hand down her pants, given her gifts, and sent her explicit emails.

Police learned of the relationship from school administrators, who learned of it from the girl’s friend. The victim denied the abuse at first, but later told her grandma about it.

Newman, who is married with two kids, used the name Tyler Durden (a character in the movie Fight Club) to share his sex fantasies with his 16-year-old victim via email. He told her, “I think I crossed the line, but I like it.” He also gave her gift cards to Starbucks and Blockbuster. Is this grooming behavior or what?

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In Connecticut, coach Michael J. Garvie III, 30, was charged with enticing a minor and risk of injury to a minor. He has resigned his position as the athletic director and varsity baseball coach at St. Bernard School, a private Catholic school. He also coached their girls’ basketball team.

He was arrested after having sexually explicit online conversations with a person he thought was a 15-year-old girl. Instead he was chatting with an adult female detective who was working undercover and targeting online sexual predators. Ooops.

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In Kentucky, eighth-grade social studies teacher Russell Fallon, 29, and seventh-grade science teacher Dan Little, 24, were arrested on drug charges.

Fallon faces misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and use/possession of drug paraphernalia. Fallon was arrested after managers of a Hampton Inn called police to evict people who were partying in one of the rooms. After a search, police found marijuana and narcotics on Fallon.

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In the UK, karate instructor Andrew Crawford, 36, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child, and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child. He now has to register as a sex offender. They haven’t determined how long his jail term will be yet - the maximum is 14 years.

What’s stunning about this case is that the victim is speaking out to protect other girls in her situation. I advise anyone who thinks that a teenager having a sexual relationship with an older man or woman is no big deal to read this interview. As she said,

He was like a second dad to me. Then he took advantage of that.

It has made me not trust people. I hardly let anyone give me a hug or touch me. I’ve only got one friend who I would really even let touch me now.”

Her interview highlights how serious sexual abuse is and how important it is to tell your kids that they can always come to you if they’re in trouble.

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Andrew Crawford, teacher-student affair, sex with student, sexual abuse, sexual predator, sex offender

Occasionally I get accused of not reporting postive outcomes about teachers who have been cleared of abuse charges. So here’s one for the record…

Sexual abuse charges against Sebastian Moore, a coach and physical education teacher with Russell County Middle School in Ohio, were dismissed as the judged ordered a directed verdict for acquittal. Moore had been indicted on a charge of first-degree sexual abuse alleging he inappropriately touched a 17-year-old special education student on school property.

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Parents want an easy way to do background checks, so USA Football is giving half a million dollars to encourage youth leagues to register for background screening services for their coaches through www.USAFootball.com so they can receive gold-standard, fully-managed background screening services at significantly reduced pricing through the National Center for Safety Initiatives (NCSI).

USA Football is the national governing body of youth, high school and international amateur football, and is the first national youth sports organization to make this kind of commitment towards the fight against child predators.

To read the press release, click here. And encourage your school, rec, and competitive sports leagues to sign up today and start doing background checks on their coaches.

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USA Football, background checks, coaches abusing kids, sexual abuse

In Lake Oswego, Oregon, swim coach Donald John King, 66, was arraigned on charges of sexual abuse for inappropriately touching teenage female swimmers while at a swim meet at South Albany High School’s pool.

The investigation began after people at a swim meet in Albany alerted an off-duty detective. The detective later videotaped the incidents of inappropriate touching by King.

He has been charged with first-degree sex abuse, third-degree sex abuse, and first-degree attempted sexual abuse. In an interesting wrinkle in the case King has been arrested for sexual abuse in both Lake Oswego and Albany, Oregon. However, the district attorney has decided that King should face two misdemeanor counts with allegations stemming from a single victim.

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Donald John King, inappropriate touch, swim coach, sexual abuse

In Arizona, a group of parents say Sarah Boustila, Arcadia High School’s girls basketball team coach has bullied and verbally abused her players for two years. They told the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board that school administrators didn’t do enough to address complaints about Coach Boustil, and have asked that her coaching contract not be renewed.

Boustila is a math teacher at Arcadia High School and has been coaching the girls basketball team since 2005. Parents said they started noticing issues right away when players told their their parents that Boustila used curse words and verbally put down the team after a loss.

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