As part of the investigation, police learned she was employed as a teacher with the Davis Joint Unified School District in Northern California and was set to begin the school year on Monday. Davis Joint Unified School District officials said they were notified on Thursday that Polk, a teacher at Harper Junior High School in Davis since August 2022, was arrested Wednesday in West Sacramento. They also learned then that Polk was accused of sex crimes involving a minor in Centralia, Washington in 2020.
Christian Williams has been booked into Pierce County Jail for voyeurism and possession of child pornography. The 48-year-old was arrested at Spanaway Lake High School, where he was employed as an AP Computer Science teacher. The school was placed on a modified lockdown on September 11 as police made the arrest without incident. A teenage girl found a USB plug-in charger with a camera on it in the bathroom she shares with her younger sister, according to law enforcement.
"They had no idea where it was from," said Pierce County Sheriff's Sgt. Darren Moss. "It’s basically a small USB plug-in charger and it has a tiny little camera inside of it. They reported it to deputies that they found it in their restroom."
A Redmond High School counselor was arrested for allegedly having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student. Redmond detectives became aware of the relationship between Derik Detweiler, 35, of Kenmore, and the 17-year-old girl after she came forward on May 22 to Lake Washington School District staff. The school placed Detweiler on administrative leave and notified Redmond police. An immediate and thorough investigation developed sufficient evidence to secure a warrant for his arrest. Redmond detectives tracked Detweiler to Wyoming, and on May 30, local authorities took him into custody without incident. He will remain in custody in Wyoming pending extradition back to Washington.
A high school teacher from Vancouver Public Schools was arrested Friday on allegations that he had sexual contact with a 16-year-old student in 2013, police said. Shadbreon Gatson, 43, is a teacher at Hudson’s Bay High School. He was arrested on one charge of sexual misconduct with a minor, about three weeks after the alleged victim — now an adult — reported the alleged abuse to her former school, Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Kathy McNicholas said.
The school district put Gatson on administrative leave as it “cooperated with a law enforcement investigation into claims of inappropriate behavior,” Principal Val Seeley and the district Superintendent Jeff Snell said in a joint email to the Hudson’s Bay community, according to a copy of the letter provided by a district spokesperson.
Court documents showed that officers interviewed Gatson's alleged victim, who said she came forward now due to the ongoing trauma the alleged incidents have caused her as well as the suspicion that the teacher may have other victims. Additionally, she told investigators she originally denied the claims because Gatson told her to. At the time, Gatson did receive a disciplinary letter in his file.
According to court documents, the relationship allegedly began after Gatson gave the victim detention and “sexual acts happened at both home and the school.” According to KATU, in 2013, a custodian walked in on Gatson engaging in sex acts with a minor, a 16-year-old student, in the school’s band room. The incident was reported to school officials, but both the teacher and student denied it.
Redmond detectives, along with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, arrested a Northshore School District teacher for attempted rape of a child in the first degree. John E. Butz, 61, of Snohomish, was arrested in Redmond during a multi-agency operation targeting people allegedly involved in the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. Online communications between a detective and Butz led to a planned meeting at a hotel in Redmond, where he believed he was meeting minors for illicit purposes.
Butz is currently in custody at the King County Correctional Facility.
Ten teachers and district officials were revealed to be on paid administrative leave in the St. Helens School District, that serves parts of Northern Oregon following accusations of sexual abuse and failure to report.
After students, parents, and community members demanded transparency in the wake of the allegations from the schools, the district released the list and a spokesperson said nine of the 10 are under pending investigation by outside entities and “are on leave in association with the current issues facing the district,” but would not confirm if the individuals are part of the ongoing accusations of sexual abuse and failure to report.
The list also included school district superintendent Scot Stockwell (11/15), St. Helens Middle School Teacher Stacey (Scott) Pieper (11/21), Plymouth High School teacher Adam Wies (12/6), and McBride Elementary School SPED IA Dawn Robillard (11/21).
Making matters worse, the district had to find a new point of contact for communications after Thomas DeLapp withdrew when a community member told the district that DeLapp had been convicted of embezzlement after being accused of stealing $52,000 from California’s Rocklin Educational Excellence Foundation, where he was a founding chairman.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Oregon is the number one in registered sex offenders in the country per-capita.
"Oregon is two-and-a-half times the national average in registered sex offenders," Oregon State Police Cpt. Tim Fox said in an interview with News 10's sister station, KATU."One of those reasons is we have 26 registerable offenses that can be registered, and there's also lifetime registration. So it's very hard to get relief in Oregon from registration."
There are about 29,000 sex offenders registered with the Oregon State Police.
Oregon has minimal rules about background checks for people working with children. In Oregon, school districts need only a $5 criminal background check to hire non-teaching employees, including coaches and activity advisers.
And the decision to employ a person who has a criminal record below the most serious offenses -- murder, rape or sex crimes -- falls on school leaders.
Screenings vary district to district. Teachers face fingerprinting and a federal background check across 50 states when they become licensed. But classroom volunteers don't have to be checked as long as they stay in sight and sound of someone who has been checked.
Portland Public Schools is the state's only district to run its own checks through the Oregon State Police's Law Enforcement Data system. It performs federal screenings for all employees, including coaches. Hillsboro schools rely on an online record of Oregon court cases.
Most schools turn to the Oregon Department of Education. The agency charges $5 for the statewide screen, which searches records based on name, date of birth and Social Security number. It charges $62 for the nationwide search, which requires fingerprints.
The $5 check is far from complete, said Mark Hunt, director of employee services for the Department of Education. Not all jurisdictions update information regularly. And often people use false names when arrested.
That means people can potentially fall through the cracks.
