An Edmonds-Woodway High School softball coach could be faced with a misdemeanor after allegedly making phone calls and sending e-mails “of a sexual nature” to a 15-year-old student, according to police.
Police officials said they believe no sexual contact has taken place between the coach and any students.
The case was filed April 2 with the Snohomish County Prosecutors Office.
The 26-year-old Edmonds School District employee has been on paid administrative leave since Jan. 20, said district spokesperson Debbie Jakala. He has been a full-time employee since September 2001, and worked for several years as a part-time educational assistant in the district before that, Jakala said.
“Anything of this nature is without question taken seriously,” Jakala said.
Jakala added that there wasn’t a letter sent home and that no direct communication with district families had been done.
“When it was determined that these actions could be criminal, this became a police investigation and we wanted that to occur without disruption,” Jakala said.
Police began their investigation in early January after a friend of the victim told school officials she believed the coach was having an inappropriate relationship with the victim.
According to a warrant filed March 30 in Snohomish County Superior Court, School Resource Officer Martin Speckmaier, an Edmonds police officer, interviewed five female softball players who said they had witnessed the coach “coming on” to girls on the softball team. One student said she had seen an instant message from the coach on the victim’s home computer that read “I had a dream about you last night but I cannot tell you about it because I would get fired.”
The victim reported that she was afraid of what her parents would say and didn’t want to get the coach in trouble, but said that he had “been attempting to engage her into a sexual relationship during last year’s softball season.”
According to the warrant, she had been communicating with the coach by phone, e-mail and instant messages from April through June 2003, and that at first she was flattered, but soon began thinking his actions towards her were “gross” and “weird.”
The warrant also states that another female student reported the coach had contacted her through e-mail and told her a “perverted” story and that it was “a good thing the he was not a perverted coach because he would get fired.”
A search warrant was issued Jan. 16 for the suspect’s residence and computer equipment, including 14 floppy disks, the warrant stated.
The coach will remain on leave while the investigation continues, school officials said.
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