Former teacher, coach accused of relationship with student

By Kera Wanielista / Skagit Valley Herald

MOUNT VERNON — A former substitute teacher and assistant coach at Mount Vernon High School was arrested and charged Wednesday with first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor for having a relationship with a student.

Todd J. Wright Jr. turned himself in to the Mount Vernon Police Department on Wednesday afternoon, said Lt. Greg Booth.

Wright, 26, engaged in a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student at the high school, according to court documents.

The district terminated Wright’s employment April 12, the day it learned of the incident, Assistant Superintendent Bill Nutting said.

Although the student was not a minor, state law specifies it is a crime for a school employee to have a sexual relationship with a student at the employee’s school if the student is between the ages of 16 and 21 and the employee is more than 60 months older than the student.

Wright was a long-term substitute teacher at the high school and met the woman while he was substituting in a class she was in, court documents state.

The two began messaging each other through social media, and met up over spring break, according to court records. Wright took the woman back to his house and the two engaged in consensual sex, documents state.

“There’s nothing that indicates this was anything other than consensual,” Booth said.

Wright began working for the Mount Vernon School District as a substitute in December 2016, Nutting said.

Wright did not work as a substitute teacher in the district much that school year, but he continued to work as a substitute in the district this school year, Nutting said.

Wright also worked as an assistant coach for both baseball and football during the 2016-17 year, Nutting said, and as a baseball coach for the 2018 season.

“Please be assured that the physical and emotional safety of all of our students is our first priority,” Nutting said in a statement that went home to parents. “We will not tolerate invasion of student boundaries or breaches of student trust by any of our employees.”

Wright is being held on $50,000 bail.