By Jennifer Smith Richards
The Columbus Dispatch
January 25, 2008
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/01/25/Crary.ART_ART_01-25-08_B1_NU95I3O.html?sid=101
[Includes a link to the school's statement about Crary and to the major 2007 Columbus Dispatch series on teacher misconduct - including sexual misconduct - in Ohio schools.]
Three years after Worthington Christian High School hired Jason Crary, officials heard that something inappropriate had happened with a student at his former school.
But no criminal charges had been filed and, after speaking with the parent of the student, Worthington Christian officials didn't lend credence to the rumors. That was in 2002.
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| Jason Crary |
Yesterday, Crary pleaded guilty in Wisconsin to four felony counts of sexual assault by a school staff member.
Last week, he resigned from Worthington Christian, where he taught English and coached the girls soccer team.
He's out on bail until April 3, when he'll be sentenced. The prosecutor in the case said he will recommend a suspended prison sentence -- meaning it won't take effect -- and probation.
After the plea was announced, Worthington Christian's superintendent sent parents a letter offering officials' prayers and explaining why they didn't take action after their 2002 investigation.
"The charges to which Mr. Crary pled guilty today are substantially different from what (former Worthington Christian Superintendent) Taylor Smith recalls being discussed in 2002," Superintendent Bill Williams wrote.
Crary wasn't arrested until last October, days after the resignation of a different Worthington Christian soccer coach who reportedly had fondled a student several years earlier. Worthington Christian immediately suspended Crary.
The Wisconsin criminal complaint said Crary had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl who played on the soccer team that he coached at Heritage Christian School in Milwaukee.
The girl reported the abuse to police in 2007, Assistant District Attorney Kenneth R. Berg said. She said that Crary fondled her several times between 1997 and 1999 at his house.
He resigned from the Milwaukee school at the end of the 1998-99 school year to take a job at Worthington Christian.
Crary's arrest came a few days after the completion of a Dispatch series, " The ABCs of Betrayal," which included information on his colleague Dwayne Smith.
In 1996, Smith admitted that he had fondled a middle-school girl, church leaders said. He resigned, attended Christian counseling and was forgiven by the school and associated church, Grace Brethren. He later was rehired by the school but resigned again after the Dispatch series ran.
If there was uncertainty as to Crary's guilt before, Assistant Superintendent Troy McIntosh said yesterday, there shouldn't be now.
"He admitted to his guilt in the matter. We love Jason, and that will never change. We care about his family a lot, but we also want justice for his victim. So we've been willing to wait until this was resolved in court," McIntosh said.
After the Dispatch series, Worthington Christian did new background checks of its employees and sought two outside reviews of the school's hiring practices. Those should be completed in the next couple of weeks.
A permanent replacement for Crary will be hired.
"In some sense, we've had to rely on God's sovereignty and a sense that his righteousness is going to come through in this," McIntosh said. "Our hope is that we can continue to assure parents that this is a safe place."
Contact: jsmithrichards@ dispatch.com
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