A college district unwittingly helped a pupil declare herself homeless — paving the best way for her to have the ability to transfer in with a feminine instructor who sexually groomed her, say advocates, paperwork and the woman’s kin.
The unidentified teen — who attended Columbine Excessive Faculty in Littleton, Colo., the positioning of the notorious lethal bloodbath in 1999 — was a straight-A pupil and captain of the swim staff who allegedly developed an inappropriate relationship along with her social-studies instructor, probably as early as her sophomore 12 months in 2018.
That 12 months, the scholar instructed Jefferson County Faculty District officers that she felt unsafe at residence and requested for assist submitting paperwork to be declared an “unaccompanied minor,’’ in response to a later inside school-district probe whose outcomes have been obtained by the native advocacy group JeffCo Children First.
The teenager requested that she be positioned within the care of her instructor, Leann Kearney, the district paperwork declare.
However it was a ruse: The woman had exchanged round 20,000 texts with Kearney and written a word dated in 2021 describing her “kissing” the instructor — and the pair hoped to stay collectively, in response to the paperwork, a sheriff’s report and the woman’s mother, who noticed cellphone data that exposed the hordes of texts.
The scholar’s mom first allegedly obtained suspicious after recognizing the unaccompanied-minor paperwork beneath her daughter’s mattress.
The mother introduced the cellphone data and disturbing word to highschool Principal Scott Christy, who mentioned he was “conscious of the scenario” however argued that Kearney merely had a particular curiosity in “serving to children navigate their sexuality,” in response to the district investigation.
The varsity even allegedly took steps to maintain the woman’s mom at nighttime, with emails from the teenager’s counselor asking a household liaison to not inform her mother and father of the scenario.
“If my buddy hadn’t discovered the homeless paperwork beneath the mattress, this may’ve remained sealed,” household pal Heather McCormick instructed The Submit.
McCormick, whose daughter is greatest pals with the teenager’s youthful sister, mentioned nothing concerning the household’s residence life ever raised a pink flag by way of points within the family.
“[My daughter] is over at their home on a regular basis. We go to church with them. I’ve by no means had any considerations. They’re simply a mean middle-class household,” she mentioned. “However [the girl] made it sound like the house wasn’t secure and didn’t need the college to speak to her mother and father.”
After allegedly getting the brush-off from the college, the woman’s mom reached out to the advocacy group, which alerted native media to the case and district paperwork.
However by then it was too late.
“It was only some weeks earlier than [the student’s] 18th birthday,’’ McCormick mentioned. “At that time, she had already made her choices, and there was no going again.’’
The woman left her household residence out as quickly as she turned 18, though she briefly moved in with a special instructor, as Kearney had been deployed by the Nationwide Guard, the district probe mentioned.
As quickly as Kearney returned, she resigned, and she or he and the teenager absconded collectively to Oregon, McCormick mentioned.
The state finally stripped Kearney of her training license. The revocation doc, signed by the legal professional common, described her habits as “grooming.”
The woman’s mom hardly ever communicates along with her now, McCormick mentioned.
The district mentioned in a press release to CBS Colorado, “We deeply remorse how profoundly this violation has affected their household.
“Whereas now we have taken each step to take away this former worker from Jeffco and forestall her from working in one other instructional setting… We acknowledge that is of little consolation to the household,” it instructed the outlet, which first reported on the probe.
The district didn’t reply to a Submit request for remark.
The Submit couldn’t discover a working cellphone quantity for Kearney, with all of her listed numbers disconnected.
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