Principal often took student from class to sexually assault her in his office, WI cops say
A former Wisconsin educator is accused of sexually assaulting a high school girl “just about every day” in his office 10 years ago, police say.
He sometimes removed her from class for sex acts, media outlets report.
Curtiss Tolefree Jr., who’s the principal of an elementary school in Zion, Illinois, was charged with sexual assault of a student and exposing genitals to a child, the school district announced Monday.
Police say Tolefree sexually assaulted the girl at Bradford High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, while he was dean of students, the Chicago Tribune reported. She told investigators that she got in trouble as a student and was sent to Tolefree’s office, WBBM reported.
The sexual assaults then began happening frequently while she was a junior and senior in 2008 and 2009, the Tribune reported.
The crimes happened at the school, Tolefree’s home and hotels, police said, according to the Chicago Tribune. Often, Tolefree and the girl exercised and had sex after school before he took her home, WISN reported. Other times, he called her into his office for sex acts, the Milwaukee TV station reported.
Zion Elementary School District 6 put Tolefree on administrative leave. He is the principal of Beulah Park Elementary School.
“We understand that this news is concerning,” the school district wrote in a letter. “Please know the safety and security of our students, staff and schools is and will always be our top priority. The district conducts fingerprint-based criminal background checks and cross-referencing of state and national sexual and violent offender registries as a part of our pre-employment process.”
Shortly after Tolefree got the job in Illinois last year, the Lake County News-Sun reported that he was accused of having sex with subordinates, sexual intercourse in a school building and during conference trips, and interfering with the district’s investigation.
At the time, Tolefree denied the allegations through his attorney, and Zion school district officials declined to comment on whether they knew of the Wisconsin investigation before hiring him, the newspaper reported.
If convicted, Tolefree could go to prison for up to 19 years, WISN reported.
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