The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Recently arrested Northmont coach was praised by many

Northmont coach found partially clothed in car with 17-year-old

Suspect dead after shooting at deputies
Updated 3 min. ago
Salvation Army holiday basket sign-up starts Monday
5:31 p.m.
Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors authors
5:29 p.m.
Funeral set for officer who had H1N1 flu
4:55 p.m.
Kings Island ride flawed, engineer says
1:41 p.m.
> More headlines

By Doug Page, Staff Writers 11:46 PM Wednesday, June 24, 2009

In his seven years at Northmont High School, Loren P. Meadows has been consistently commended by supervisors as a social studies teacher and praised throughout the area as an assistant football coach and head boys and girls track coach.

According to his personnel file, Meadows had no indication of any disciplinary actions.

Until Wednesday, June 24.

Meadows was arrested early Tuesday on charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct after Clinton County Sheriff’s Office deputies found him partially clothed in a car with a 17-year-old girl.

He struggled with the deputies, according to a sheriff’s office incident report. Northmont placed Meadows on administrative leave Wednesday.

It is the second time in two years a Northmont Schools teacher has been investigated for an inappropriate relationship with a student. Jason Simmons, a former Ohio State football team captain and Northmont Middle School teacher, was convicted last June of having sex with a 14-year-old female student.

Simmons was released from the Madison Correctional Institution on June 4 after serving nearly a year in prison for the crime.

“He (Meadows) has no business being with her in a car like that partially clothed,” Clinton County Sheriff Ralph Fizer said.

Teaching resume

Meadows is a graduate of Ohio Northern University, where he was a three-year starter on the football team, according to his school resume. He was a volunteer coach at the university and taught three years in North Carolina before coming to Northmont.

He was hired as a social studies teacher in 1999 and left the school district for other employment a year later. He returned to the district in the 2002-03 school year. Classroom observations and performance assessments found Meadows met or exceeded expectations in the classroom.

Those assessments praised Meadows as a role model and effective teacher and coach.

“He is to be commended for ... being a positive role model for our students. His extracurricular work is outstanding,” one classroom observer wrote in 2000.

When Clinton County deputies responded to the report of a suspicious vehicle parked in the secluded area of Clarksville Road, they discovered the teen in the driver’s seat of her Honda sedan and Meadows in the passenger seat, according to a sheriff’s report. The teen was partially undressed, as was Meadows, the report said.

Meadows initially told a deputy he was also 17 years old and then said he was 32. While searching records, deputies learned Meadows was 35, the report said.

Deputies struggled with Meadows while attempting to place him in handcuffs and Tasered him on his back near his right shoulder, the report said, which led to the arrest on charges of obstructing official business and resisting arrest.

During interviews with deputies, Meadows and the teen said she was a member of his Northmont track team and had worked as a baby sitter for his family.

The relationship

Meadows told deputies “the relationship started with hugs and kisses before meets,” and the two had a sexual relationship for the previous four months, including during her time as a Northmont student, the report said. They were waiting to have intercourse until the teen turned 18, the report said.

Both denied to deputies any sexual activity on Tuesday “due to my arrival,” a sheriff’s deputy wrote in his report.

The teen refused to provide a written statement “due to her love for Mr. Meadows,” the report said.

Meadows had been married one month when he was arrested Tuesday, according to county records. A woman answering the door Wednesday at Meadows’ home said he was not there and declined to comment.

Sheriff Fizer said Meadows had volunteered for an organization holding an event at the Joy Outdoor Education Center in Clarksville on Tuesday, which he left to meet the teen.

Share this article