Orrville teacher signs 3-year contract after inquiry found 'worrisome' conduct

ORRVILLE ― Orrville City Schools signed a three-year $80,712 renewal contract with a high school math teacher whom four students had accused of inappropriate behavior in the fall of 2021.

The $27,000-per-year contract will start three months after the teacher returned to Orrville High School following more than one year of paid administrative leave. It also comes months after the conclusion of state investigation.

The teacher has denied any accusations of misconduct, inappropriate behavior or sexually harassing students.

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The investigation by the Ohio Attorney General's Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation concluded in October when Medina County Prosecutor Forrest Thompson, acting as special prosecutor for Wayne County, reviewed the inquiry.

Thompson determined the teacher had engaged in "unacceptable and inappropriate conduct," according to the Medina Prosecutor's Office. Although Thompson found the teacher's conduct "worrisome," he did not recommend criminal charges.

"(The teacher's conduct) does not, based on the information I have, rise to the level of a basis for felony criminal charges," Thompson wrote to Wayne County prosecutors in 2022.

Sue Corfman, vice president of the Orrville Board of Education, said the board did not know about Thompson's determination of the BCI investigation when the board voted to renew the teacher's contract in April.

"Student safety is our number one safety," Corfman said. "We have some new cameras in the library where (the teacher) tutors."

The teacher is not identified because no criminal charges have been filed. The teacher did not respond to a request for comment.

This was the second of two investigations from 2022 into accusations that the teacher had engaged in inappropriate behavior with students, according to documents obtained by The Daily Record.

Two investigations in one year

The teacher was placed on paid administrative leave in February 2022 after four unidentified teenage students accused him of inappropriate behavior during the 2021 fall semester.

He remained on paid leave for more than a year, returning in April. During that 14-month window, two investigations took place: one by BCI and another by two independent law firms.

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The investigation conducted by the law firms looked at 12 allegations of alleged sexual harassment. The determination report described two instances of sexual harassment and multiple examples of the teacher violating board and district policies.

The lawyer who wrote the report did not recommend the teacher's employment be terminated. Instead, the lawyer recommended the teacher complete sexual harassment training and be directed not to touch or comment on any student's body, clothing or appearance.

"There is no need for (the teacher) to be touching students anywhere on their bodies, including without limitation their hands, arms, shoulders, or backs, and certainly not their thighs, face, hair, and he should not be doing so," the lawyer wrote. "There is no need for (the teacher) to comment to students about their clothing, appearance, or bodies, and he should not be doing so."

The state's investigation

The Orrville Police Department initially took the lead on the investigation in February but soon turned it over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

According to a BCI investigation report, OPD wanted to avoid a potential conflict of interest between the city and the teacher, who was an elected official in the past and a friend of the mayor.

Orrville police handed over the interviews conducted with three students for review by the BCI investigator.

Statements from those students allege the teacher would rub the shoulders and backs of girls, touch their thighs and faces and get close enough to whisper in their ears, according to a BCI investigation report sent to Wayne County prosecutors.

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In one instance in fall 2021, according to the report, the teacher placed a hand on a student's face and thigh for about 10 seconds while talking to her.

Another student accused the teacher of commenting on her skirts and shirts, telling her how tight her tops were and that her chest was "on display," according to the report.

Other accusations involve the teacher physically moving a student's leg from an aisle with his hand and putting his hands on the shoulders of female students.

The teacher's account

The teacher denied any accusations of misconduct, inappropriate behavior or sexually harassing students, according to his account of events in an investigation report.

He denied touching a student's thigh and face or purposefully bumping into female students.

According to the report, he explained how physical touch only involves "high fives, fist bumps, pat or tap on shoulder when saying 'hey, good job or proud of you.'"

On at least one occasion he said he told a female student to move her leg from the aisle, but when she did not, he placed his hand under her heel near the ankle and moved it.

Among the allegations against the teacher was that he would purposefully bump his shoulder into one of the female students.

He denied this accusation to investigators, saying the student in question was "a physical person" who would sometimes drop her shoulder down to bump into him while he attempted to avoid her.

The teacher said he tries to understand students on a personal level, so he asks about sports and makes comments but said "he cannot speak to a student's feelings."

He denied commenting on bra straps and explained that he does not comment on dress code issues, according to the report.

"I stopped that practice a long time ago," he said in the report.

Former students allege inappropriate conduct

The special agent also interviewed two former students who had accused the teacher of inappropriate behavior.

One attended Orrville schools roughly six years ago, according to the report.

In eighth grade and high school, she said, the teacher rubbed her shoulders, played with her hair, commented when she wore a tank top and would "snap her bra strap on her shoulder" if it was visible.

The school district hired SACS Consulting and Investigation Services to investigate the matter in 2018. According to the school district, it found the allegations to be unsubstantiated.

Another student, who graduated from high school in 2012, said the teacher rubbed her shoulders on multiple occasions or stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders as he lectured the class, according to the report.

Medina prosecutor weighs in

Former Wayne County Prosecutor Dan Lutz handed the case over to the Medina County Prosecutor's Office due to a conflict of interest, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. Lutz had served as legal counsel for the City of Orrville when the teacher was an elected official.

Thompson's role was to review the BCI investigation to determine if criminal charges should be filed against the teacher.

He determined the teacher touched the thigh of at least one of the three female students in class. Thompson explained in a letter to Lutz the conduct did not rise to the level of sexual contact because there was "no indication that there was a purpose of sexual arousal."

The Ohio Revised Code defines sexual contact as "any touching of an erogenous zone of another, including without limitation the thigh, genitals, buttock, pubic region, or, if the person is a female, a breast, for the purpose of sexually arousing or gratifying either person."

While he recommended no criminal charges, Thompson urged Orrville City Schools to take "strong and decisive action to prevent further incidents."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Orrville OH teacher signs new contract after two misconduct inquiries