Harding special-ed teacher convicted of sexual battery of female student

Staff report

WARREN

A jury found Eric R. Kline, a special-education teacher at Warren G. Harding High School, guilty of sexual battery in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Kline, 26, of Ridgeway Place, Newton Falls, will be sentenced later. He could get several years in prison or probation.

Charges were filed after a 16-year-old female student said she and Kline engaged in sexual conduct while alone in Kline’s classroom at the high school in March. She was one of his students.

Kline has been on administrative duties away from the school since the allegations surfaced March 15.

Harding’s principal, Dante Capers, testified Tuesday in the courtroom of Judge Ronald Rice that Klein had his own classroom on the high school’s third floor, but most of his duties involved co-teaching with a social studies teacher.

Kline’s position is known as intervention specialist, meaning he is there to ensure that special-needs students get the education they need, Capers said.

Capers first learned of the allegations because a female student reported to a guidance counselor she had seen Kline and another female student alone in Kline’s classroom March 14, Capers said.

Capers watched surveillance video from the hallway near the classroom and was able to confirm details the student had given.

School officials went looking for the girl involved and found her alone with Kline in his classroom while the girl was supposed to be in gym class, Capers said.

Kline was removed from the school that afternoon. He was in his first year as a Harding staff member.

Mike Currington, Warren police school-resource officer, testified the victim told him they engaged in two sex acts in Kline’s classroom.