Edmonds schools received multiple warnings before alleged sexual assault
Published 6:30 am Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Editor’s note: This report was produced in partnership with InvestigateWest.
EVERETT — On Aug. 6, 2025, a Lynnwood police officer got a call from a social worker at a nearby hospital. A girl, hospitalized for suicidal ideation, wanted to make a report about being assaulted by her former teacher.
Sitting with her mother in a room at the hospital, the girl told the police officer what had happened when she was a fifth grader at Meadowdale Elementary School in winter 2023, when she moved into special education teacher David Sibley’s class. The girl shared how Sibley “was immediately friendly with her and would try to hold her hand from time to time,” and force her to hug him. The girl said she’d tell Sibley she didn’t want to.
And she said that one school day in December of that year, he digitally raped her after he released the rest of the class to recess. He said if she told anyone what happened, he’d kill her, the girl recalled to police.
The girl’s report added to an accumulating criminal investigation into Sibley, where police had initially referred two fourth-degree assault charges, one with a sexual motivation, to the Lynnwood Municipal prosecutor, who asked for further investigation into Sibley. After the girl’s report last year, Lynnwood police forwarded the allegation to the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office, which decided earlier this month not to charge Sibley with rape of a child in the first degree. The office’s chief of staff, Michael Held, cited a lack of “sufficient admissible evidence to prove that a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt” in a statement. Sibley denies all allegations against him and declined to answer specific questions for this article.
But a review of investigative documents and internal school emails reveals that long before police got involved, staff, students and parents at Meadowdale Elementary had repeatedly expressed concerns to school administrators about how Sibley interacted with students since 2022. By the time Sibley allegedly sexually assaulted the fifth grader in December 2023, a teacher said in a police interview that Sibley had been told by the principal to stop giving students candy, and instead of stopping, he told the kids to keep the candy a secret. A mother told administrators her daughter, who has severe learning disabilities, was uncomfortable with how Sibley touched her in class. And in the same month of the alleged assault, a staff member told principal Daniel Davis and human resources director Roger Jordan that a first-grade student was being “molested” by Sibley, pulling the student into his groin during prolonged hugs, police records show.
Despite these reports to the school, administrators did not remove Sibley from the classroom. Human resources director Roger Jordan opened an investigation in December 2023, which resulted in a “letter of directives” instructing him not to cross boundaries with students that was kept in his working discipline file and would not be automatically shared with future employers.
Jordan did not interview any children during the investigation, and the school district did not make any public notifications to parents. School districts are required by state law to notify a student’s parent or guardian of allegations that the child “is a victim, target or recipient of physical or sexual abuse, sexual misconduct or assault” by a school employee. Curtis Campbell, the district spokesperson, would not answer whether or not the school notified parents of alleged victims.
It would take another eight months for school administrators to remove Sibley from the classroom. He is currently on paid leave until his contract runs out Aug. 31. On or before that date, as part of a settlement agreement the district signed Jan. 27, the district will then pay him an additional lump sum of $56,770.60.
While state law prohibits districts from entering into agreements that have “the effect of suppressing information about verbal or physical abuse or sexual misconduct,” Campbell said the agreement does not suppress any information or affect the placement or material of any of Sibley’s files.
“[Sibley] needs to be held accountable, and he needs to not ever have the right to be around children,” said Ginnie Berry, a former Meadowdale staff member who reported Sibley to the police in 2024. “And honestly, what I’m gunning for is the [school and district] admin. They all need to lose their positions. Anybody who knew and stood by needs to lose their [licenses].”
Davis, who resigned from his position as Meadowdale’s principal in April 2025 citing media attention, declined to comment through Campbell, the district spokesperson. The district has reassigned him to a position supporting the capital projects department, according to Campbell. Jordan retired at the end of the 2024-2025 school year and did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Campbell did not answer questions about how school and district leadership responded to reports about Sibley, and he referred questions to a third-party investigation the district initiated on Feb 26. The investigation, conducted by Crystal Investigations, an independent law firm that conducts workplace and school investigations, and led by Hannah Driscoll, has been completed, but the school district has not provided The Herald and InvestigateWest with a copy in time for publication.
Early reports
Edmonds School District hired Sibley as a special education teacher for Meadowdale Elementary in August 2022.
As a special education teacher, he was tasked with teaching students who needed additional support due to learning disabilities or behavioral challenges, and he helped to form Individualized Education Plans.
Wendy Masterson, an assistant paraeducator who briefly worked in Sibley’s classroom, said he worked with kids from families that were poorer, usually “one-parent families,” or whose parents’ first language wasn’t English.
“He knows every disability, he knows every bit of trauma these kids have, he knows what their home life is like, he knows if parents can even support these kids, or can they even support them in English,” Masterson said.
The first report involving concerns of how Sibley interacted with students came just five months after Sibley was hired, in December 2022.
A mother, whose daughter had severe learning disabilities and was in Sibley’s class, asked to meet with him and Davis, the principal. She said her daughter was extremely uncomfortable in Sibley’s classroom, and that she was upset about how Sibley touched girls in the class, according to an interview with the mother, Sarah, who asked for her last name not to be included for privacy concerns.
Davis brushed off her concerns, according to Sarah’s account given during a later school board meeting. She told the board she continued to bring her concerns about Sibley to Davis, going so far as to email the board and report to police in 2024.
“She has told me how often she was alone with him with the lights out and the door closed,” the mother said, her voice breaking as she tried to hold in tears during the January 2026 board meeting. “I want my daughter protected.”
In June 2023, the end of Sibley’s first teaching year at Meadowdale, public records show that school psychologist Monica Moreno emailed Assistant Superintendent Dana Geaslen and Director of Itinerant Support Services Janice Nicholson raising concerns about students being uncomfortable in Sibley’s class.
“We have some high behavior students who feel unsafe going to learning support,” she wrote, adding that “back in November, I witnessed Mr. Sibley intertwined his hand with a student who was struggling emotionally. I talked to him about it and let him know that it was inappropriate.”
“The incidents you have highlighted are concerning. I will defer to Dana Geaslen for any potential next steps,” Nicholson responded.
Geaslen replied she would follow up with human resources leadership. Records show the school didn’t open a formal investigation.
In April 2022, Edmonds School District hired Ginnie Berry as a substitute teacher, before she became Meadowdale Elementary’s student intervention coordinator in August 2023, a role where she supported students who might be struggling academically or behaviorally.
Within months of joining Meadowdale, Berry said to investigators she saw Sibley frequently request hugs from female students, pulling the young girls into his body and holding them there so their faces were pressed against his groin. Berry felt personally sexually harassed by Sibley, who she said asked her on dates and touched her back and bra strap. One day, she saw a fifth-grade girl in his classroom with the blinds drawn, door closed and the lights off.
In December 2023, Berry reported her concerns to the principal, Davis, and the human resources director, Jordan, demanding the school investigate him.
The one-month internal investigation, in which Jordan failed to interview any students, ensued. It concluded Sibley’s behavior didn’t violate school policies. The letter of directives in Sibley’s working discipline file could be accessed only by the human resources department that investigated him and other “appropriate supervisory staff,” according to the school district. The letter would not be “automatically shared with prospective employers,” meaning it likely wouldn’t follow Sibley if he changed districts.
“The district does not typically issue broad family notifications at the start of a personnel investigation unless there is a confirmed safety concern requiring immediate notification,” said Campbell, the district spokesperson.
Berry left the district in March 2024, disillusioned with the district’s lack of response to her reports of sexual misconduct. She later reached a settlement agreement with the district after submitting claims of retaliation regarding her reports of Sibley’s behavior. The district did not admit to wrongdoing in the agreement.
A month before, records show that Meadowdale special education teacher Tracy Nelson emailed Andi Nofziger, the president of the Edmonds Education Association, the local chapter of the state’s teachers’ union, to discuss Sibley.
In May, Nelson emailed Nofziger again.
“I continue to have concerns about David Sibley, and others are voicing their concerns to me,” she wrote.
“When others voice their concerns to you, it’s important to tell them to talk to David [Sibley] and Dan [Davis] about them—not you. First, you can’t do anything about it—that’s Dan’s job—and second, it puts you in a very uncomfortable position,” Nofziger replied.
Nofziger declined to comment on the situation, citing ongoing investigations.
That same month, Berry, no longer employed by the district, walked into the Lynnwood Police station to report Sibley. She was hopeful that the police would take her reports of Sibley seriously and conduct a thorough investigation compared to the “cursory” one Jordan completed, she said.
Police investigation
During the initial police investigation in 2024, the department interviewed numerous staff members and students. One girl talked about how Sibley would say “I like you” and “I love you” when he hugged her. Another girl said that Sibley took photos of her and that she wasn’t sure if he deleted the photos or not.
Staff members described him as “handsy,” and said he’d make comments about female students’ periods, that he’d take female students into his classroom alone, and that he continued to hug and touch kids even after Jordan placed the letter of directives in his discipline file forbidding him to do such things.
In May 2024, police interviewed Jordan, the district human resources director whose investigation of Sibley’s behavior with students included no student interviews. Jordan told police that when he conducted that investigation there had been no previous complaints about Sibley’s behavior from students or parents. In fact, records show that by then, Jordan and other school administrators had received at least three reports from parents and staff members involving concerns about Sibley. Jordan also said in his police interview he believed some of Sibley’s behavior was “inappropriate.”
In June 2024, a month into the police investigation, Masterson, who’d taught at the school for 13 years and the district for 25 years, emailed principal Davis with concerns about Sibley.
“David continues having his lights off/door closed in his classroom having only [redacted] with him. He sits in very close proximity and has had his hand on her upper back area. Or he sits on the desk/table area next to her with his leg/hip touching her arm,” she wrote.
Later that month, Masterson forwarded the email to three district administrators, including Assistant Superintendent Rob Baumgartner. Baumgartner then emailed another assistant superintendent, Greg Schwab, expressing concern that they were not notified earlier.
“We received this yesterday. I’m concerned that Dan [Davis] received this on the 5th and we haven’t heard anything in HR. Has he talked to you about this?” Baumgartner said, referring to Masterson’s email.
“He has not. This guy…” Schwab responded, referring to Davis.
In August 2024, the police issued Sibley a citation for assault in the fourth degree and assault in the fourth degree with sexual motivation, based on Berry’s reports that Sibley sexually harassed her and that he inappropriately hugged a 6-year-old girl.
The school district then put Sibley on administrative leave, agreeing to pay him for the next two years until his contract ran out.
In February 2025, the Lynnwood Municipal Court prosecutor reached back out to the police, requesting further investigation. In Lynnwood Detective Shannon Mozeak’s report, she explained the prosecutor thought the assault charges the department had referred “were not appropriate” for Sibley’s interactions with Berry and the first-grade student she worked with.
The prosecutor requested that the police gather additional interviews with the 6-year-old girl, as well as witnesses from the events. The prosecutor also requested copies of the school district’s policies regarding discipline, use of restraints and physical intervention, asking to direct the investigation into the presence or absence of an “imminent likelihood of serious harm.”
Detectives then conducted more interviews, gathered additional district policy documents and obtained media from Sibley’s work computer. They discovered that Sibley kept photos of multiple students on his computer. While the detective noted in her report she didn’t believe the nature of the photos of the students was “concerning,” multiple parents and staff had previously discussed being uncomfortable when they had learned Sibley was taking photos of their children.
An 11-year-old girl said during her police interview that Sibley would take a photo of her every time she won a prize in class, telling her he was sending the photo to her mom. The mom reported she never received a photo from Sibley. A first-grade teacher told the police that Sibley had taken photos of a girl, emailing the pictures to staff members, who requested that he stop because they felt it was “inappropriate.”
While the police were continuing their investigation into Sibley, Edmonds School District was preparing to take Sibley off leave and assign him to a position at Meadowdale High School, records show.
On June 12, 2025, Jordan emailed Kimber Dreier, assistant principal of Meadowdale High School, discussing Sibley’s upcoming position.
“Right now, he is on leave,” Jordan wrote. “If he gets his issues resolved, then he can slip directly into the position. We just need to have the conversation at the end of July or early August to see where he is at that point.”
The girl who was in fifth grade in December 2023 when Sibley allegedly sexually assaulted her found out Sibley may be teaching at the high school. A friend had told her, according to her statement to police, and she was afraid she would end up in Sibley’s class and possibly be assaulted again. Shortly after that, the girl was hospitalized for suicidal ideation and then made a report to Lynnwood police.
“Everybody in this school really needs to be investigated for who did the right thing and who didn’t, and whoever didn’t needs to be dealt with,” said Terri Miller, the board president of the National Center to Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct & Exploitation.
Early intervention for a child who has been sexually abused is critical, Miller said.
“Just about every survivor I’ve ever spoken to in the many decades of this work I’ve done has attempted suicide at least once. Parents find out after their child has made a suicide attempt, that’s when they discover that their child had been abused by a teacher,” she added.
Parents outraged
The student’s rape allegations have ignited fury among parents and district staff, who learned of the incident after a community member requested the police report.
Almost two years after placing Sibley on leave, and four years after the first concerns of how Sibley behaved around students came to school administrators’ attention, no school-wide or otherwise public announcement has been made, according to Curtis, the district spokesperson.
In March, a group of parents started an online petition, asking Davis to resign from his position as principal at Meadowdale over his inaction and lack of transparency with the school community.
“Far from a one-time event, the multitudinous accounts our students and their families can share about how they have suffered under Mr. Davis’ abhorrent leadership is nothing short of heartbreaking,” the petition states.
In June, Berry and Masterson commented at a school board meeting, detailing their accounts of how they believe the district failed Meadowdale students.
“When is the district going to notify parents that students were harmed and be honest and open about harboring a sexual predator?” Berry asked.
“There have been multiple victims, and to this day, the Edmonds School District has yet to inform the parents of these young students that their children are victims of grooming by this teacher,” Masterson said. “It is the district’s legal and moral obligation to inform these parents. This is not about a hail mary last ditch effort to have a post-mortem investigation to limit the school district’s liability. This is about doing the right thing.”
On July 6, Michael Held, the chief of staff for the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office, sent a statement to The Herald, explaining why, after 10 months, the office announced its decision to not pursue charges.
“We were awaiting to take possible receipt of an independent review initiated by or on behalf of the School District. We subsequently learned that the focus of that review addressed matters collateral to our concerns, and because it could have no bearing on our charging determination, and we did not seek, thereafter, to obtain a copy,” he said.
“It is our ethical obligation to refrain from filing charges when we believe the investigatory record fails to establish sufficient admissible evidence to prove that a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt,” he added.
On Aug. 31, Sibley’s contract with the district will end, two years after he was put on paid administrative leave.
Berry says she and other Edmonds parents want to hold the school district accountable.
“I really want to seek support and justice for the students, regardless of what school they attend,” she said.
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com
Eliza also uses the encrypted messaging platform, Signal: @elizaaronson.40
Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Investigative Reporting Fund.
