Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Prosecutors say man engaged in relationship with female student
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Alan Stanley, 49, of Merwin-Chase Road in Brookfield, a former McDonald High School teacher and varsity baseball coach, has pleaded guilty to two charges relating to an inappropriate relationship with a McDonald High School student.
Stanley, who resigned from the school district in October 2012, appeared before Judge Peter Kontos in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on Monday to plead guilty to two counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented matter or performance. He will be sentenced later.
He could be sentenced to up to two years in prison or he could get probation. He will be classified as a sex offender and will have to register his whereabouts with the sheriff’s office for 15 years.
Prosecutors said Stanley engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a student at the high school during the 2011-12 school year while he was a teacher there. The girl was 16 to 17 years old.
Stanley and the student texted back and forth more than 1,000 times, and some of the comments contained sexual innuendo, said Gabe Wildman, assistant county prosecutor.
The girl eventually sent Stanley naked images of herself.
The girl is not facing prosecution.
The charges relate to possessing nude images of a minor, Wildman said, adding that it involved a “teacher preying on a student. He pursued her. He was the aggressor.”
The McDonald Board of Education accepted Stanley’s resignation in 2012 after learning that the McDonald Police Department, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and other agencies were investigating the matter based on information from the girl’s boyfriend’s family.
Stanley had worked for the district for four years and taught high-school chemistry and advanced chemistry.
McDonald Superintendent Ken Halbert said in 2012 that Stanley “was prudent in resigning because he was going to be fired, and he was well aware of that reality.”
Chief Lou Ronghi of the McDonald Police Department said of the case, “We won’t tolerate this in McDonald.”