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StumbleuponDetails emerge on charged ex-music teacher
Thursday, July 17, 2008
TROY — When Troy schools officials were looking for a new high school music teacher and assistant band director last year, Jared Wolfgang came with stellar recommendations from former teachers, co-workers and parents he'd worked with in the Newton School District in western Miami County.
Several letters of recommendation are in his school personnel file, and district Superintendent Tom Dunn said calls to references, including some he personally made, brought praise and descriptions of the Ohio State University graduate and young teacher as "sincere, trustworthy."
Wolfgang, 28, resigned in late May after school officials put him on leave while investigating complaints by a girl's parent that he has been exchanging messages with the 15-year-old girl.
Dunn said he found the messages inappropriate between a teacher and a student, but said they did not contain "sexual conversation."
On Tuesday, July 15, Wolfgang was arrested at the Meijer store on West Main Street after an employee called 9-1-1 to report an adult male "loving on" a young girl in the furniture department.
Police Capt. Chris Anderson said the man was Wolfgang, who consented to a search of his car, where letters and notes from the girl— the same girl in the May messages — to Wolfgang were found along with copies of instant messages
Police filed three misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of the former student against Wolfgang. He pleaded not guilty Wednesday in county Juvenile Court, where a pretrial hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, July 23.
The investigation continues and police "have not yet determined any physical relationship" occurred, Anderson said.
After the May resignation, the Ohio Department of Education was notified that school officials found Wolfgang violated school policy for "excessive informal or social involvement" with a student, Dunn said.
Pat McBride, superintendent of the Newton schools, said Wolfgang worked for his district for four years. "There were never any allegations of any kind, and especially of that nature here at Newton," McBride said Thursday. "It is a surprise."
Dunn said the Wednesday incident is disappointing.
Whenever someone in a position of authority with kids is charged with inappropriate behavior, "it casts a shadow on all of us," Dunn said. "It doesn't just impact the person doing it, his family and the kid's family."
The Wolfgang case is one of several pending in Miami County alleging improper conduct by a person in a position of authority over kids. Those charged or under investigation include a former sheriff's deputy, two coaches, a church program volunteer and another former assistant band director, Anthony Spahr, 29, of Troy.
Spahr's sentencing is Friday, July 18, in county Common Pleas Court. He pleaded no contest in May to two felony counts of attempted gross sexual imposition for sexual activity last year with girls in West Milton while he was an assistant marching band director Milton-Union schools.
Spahr previously had held a similar position with Troy schools, but resigned in 2002. He did not face criminal charges after school officials notified Children's Services of complaints.
Dunn earlier said Spahr resigned when told of an investigation into allegations he supplied alcohol to a band member. Separate allegations of sexual conduct with a student also were made, according to a letter from a Troy schools administrator to the county Educational Services Center in 2002.
