Pennsylvania principal who was trusted ‘like an older brother’ charged with 30 counts of sex with student
A Pennsylvania high school principal was arrested and charged with 30 counts of sexual relationship and contact with a student in an alleged sexual relationship that went on for years.
Roger Weaver Freed, the 34-year-old principal of Williamsport Area High School, has been accused of having the relationship from 2015 that went on till the student graduated high school and was attending college.
According to officials, the student approached Mr Freed around 2015 after noticing he was popular with students who confided in him at the middle school service centre.
After the death of a family member, the student believed he could lean on the principal for emotional support, court documents said.
The student told investigators he trusted Mr Freed “like an older brother”.
The in-school conversations turned into after-school interactions where Mr Freed volunteered to drive the student to several locations in his car for “one-on-one” conversations, claiming they were “bros”, the affidavit states.
The two allegedly became close and their meetings became sexual in nature in 2017 when they discussed advancing their relationship while driving around Williamsport.
The principal allegedly warned the student that he could “lose my job over this” and asked him to “promise not to tell anybody”, according to the affidavit.
The student claimed that, following their first sexual encounter, Mr Freed “stressed the importance of not telling a soul” about their relationship and said it was “OK for bros to please each other”.
The student added that he felt “overwhelming guilt” but continued their sexual encounters “four to five times a week, always at night”, the court document said.
The student graduated high school in 2018 and their sexual relationship continued till April 2022, the document said.
Mr Freed is charged with 30 counts of third-degree felony school intercourse with a student along with other charges such as third-degree felony corruption of minors and second-degree felony sexual assault.
He was released on a $175,000 bail and has been prohibited from contacting the student or having any unsupervised contact with minors.
He will be required to wear an ankle monitor at all times.
