Atascadero teacher suspected of making threats also accused of touching girl in class

An Atascadero teacher who was arrested earlier this month for allegedly making threats to school district employees had been put on leave for his “unprofessional behaviors” while teaching students, according to the school district and students.

Students said Atascadero Middle School physical education teacher James Klink, 56, inappropriately touched a girl during class and made them do exercises that left students feeling uncomfortable and unsafe. He taught at the school from Aug. 12 through Sept. 2, according to Tom Butler, Atascadero Unified School District superintendent.

Klink was booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail on Jan. 17 on suspicion of five charges of threatening with an intent to terrorize. He remained in custody as of Wednesday afternoon.

Those threats sent via voicemail were allegedly made toward middle school administrators within the past month, Butler said. Klink was not on campus when he made the threats, according to Butler.

Butler said Klink was put on leave while the school district thoroughly investigated the reports by students about his behavior during class.

“Our administrative staff had identified unprofessional behaviors of that employee and started the termination process,” Butler said. “We’re doing everything correctly to make sure, one, we have quality employees, and also people that are causing us concerns aren’t going to be around kids.”

In a letter sent to the middle school’s parents and guardians on Jan. 31, Butler thanked those who had “reached out to me about a past Atascadero Middle School teacher that is now detained and currently in the custody of law enforcement.”

“Please rest assured that the district places the highest value on the safety of our students and staff and is taking all necessary precautions to ensure our students and campuses are safe,” the letter continued. “The district is taking all appropriate personnel actions regarding the employee. ... In addition, the school district immediately and actively partnered with law enforcement to make sure our students and staff are safe”

Students describe Klink’s uncomfortable class, allege inappropriate behavior

Students who spoke to The Tribune said in the few weeks Klink was a PE teacher at the school, he made them extremely uncomfortable, and they made multiple reports to school administration about his behavior.

The three students The Tribune spoke to were each 14 years old and will not be identified due to their age.

“He deserves to be in jail,” said one girl who was in Klink’s eighth-grade PE class. “Even the boys felt uncomfortable.”

“He would comment on women’s jeans and outfits in definitely kind of a creepy way and would look at us super weird,” another girl told The Tribune.

Klink supposedly made the students in his PE class stretch and bend over while he would stare at the girls from behind, the students described. One girl said Klink made the students “shake their butts” and the boys would laugh.

During one class, Klink apparently asked a young student to leave her friends and sit next to him on the bleachers. At some point during that interaction, Klink allegedly touched the girl’s breast, according to the students.

The girl then left Klink and went to her friends, seeming like she was uncomfortable and scared, one student told The Tribune.

The student said she then went to the school’s front office to report that her friend had been touched by Klink, and administrators had her fill out an incident report.

The other students in Klink’s class said they reported his general behavior during class to administrators.

“Everything that was reported at any time was fully and comprehensively investigated,” Butler said. “This one individual does not represent the great, talented staff that we have in Atascadero Unified. We take the students’ concerns very seriously. ... The employee discipline process was fully activated and fully completed regarding any of those behaviors that the students may be referring to.”

Teacher posts erratically on Facebook shortly before his arrest

Klink’s social media presence on Facebook after he was put on leave from the school appeared erratic.

On his public-facing Facebook page, Klink had not posted since July 2019 before he suddenly began posting again on Dec. 24. From then, Klink began posting disjointed rants several times a day with selfies, written comments about the “Kassarian Mafia,” posts saying the Vatican was taken over by satanists, the question “San Francisco Earthquake or Dyanamite?” and thoughts about running for president of the United States.

In one post on Jan. 4, Klink wrote, “Now you know why they did what they did at Atascadero Middle School. The web is real!”

When asked by a commenter what he was referring to, Klink responded “cabal” in one comment followed by “Accused me of misconduct” and a claim that his union rep showed up drunk to Klink’s disciplinary meeting.

Two follow-up comments on that same post from Klink said, “So many things happened at that school in my two weeks there” and “I can write a book about that alone.”

“My principal is a high level freemason from Dutch east indies mafia. I need to know where and with who he stayed in Princeville, Kauai fir (sic) the first two weeks of August?” Klink wrote in another comment on that same Jan. 4 Facebook post.

Referring to the principal of Atasacadero Middle School in a comment on the same Jan. 4 post, Klink said he had “Kassarian deep roots with Purdy.”

Klink could be referring to the “Khazarian Mafia,” an extremist antisemitic conspiracy theory to justify and even celebrate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That conspiracy theory has perpetuated “dangerous lies,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Also on Jan. 4, Klink wrote, “lets (sic) litigate ... I need some lawyers pro bono,” followed by laughing emojis.

He later that day posted pictures of a letter sent to Kamala Harris in 2018 while she was a U.S. senator. The letter described how Klink had attempted to gain custody of his children who were residing in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country.

A picture of the letter said Klink’s daughter “contacted the U.S. and Indonesian embassies in August, 2017, to report child abuse by her father against her and her brother.”

The letter later described that Klink’s children were taken from his home and sent to an orphanage by Kyrgyz authorities. It’s unclear what happened to the children after that, although the letter mentions that Klink had retained legal representation in Kyrgyzstan and was in frequent contact with the U.S. embassy regarding his children.

In a post on Jan. 5, Klink posted a screenshot of a map showing Atascadero Middle School and Atascadero City Hall with the caption “Near where they tried to crucify me at 3 grade eight assemblies. Then they brought inappropriate contact charges the next day.”

On Jan. 7, Klink posted a screenshot of the words “Kill Them Tonight!” that he attempted to post on Facebook but was blocked from doing so because the social media company limited how often he posted to “protect the community from spam,” according to the screenshot.

The next day, Klink posted several times on Facebook including “All child f------ die now,” “Target Elites,” “One love: KIDS” and “Don’t make me send home a progress report on u.”

There have been no public posts on his Facebook since Jan. 8.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information related to the investigation is asked to contact the Atascadero Police Department at 805-461-5051.

Tribune reporter Kaytlyn Leslie contributed to this story.