School superintendent indicted on sex charges

By JOE GORMAN

jgorman@vindy.com

RAVENNA

An Austintown woman on leave as Windham School District superintendent was arraigned Monday in Portage County Common Pleas Court after she was indicted on charges of sexual misconduct with two students.

Laura Amero, 35, is charged with two counts of sexual battery, two counts of attempted sexual battery, all felonies, and two counts of intimidation of a victim or witness to a crime, misdemeanors.

The grand jury handed up its indictment Friday against Amero. She is on paid administrative leave as superintendent, a job she took in February.

The charges state that Amero, in her official capacity as an employee of Windham schools, had sex twice with the same student who was 16 at the time between Feb. 24 and May 24, 2017.

She is also accused of trying to have sex with another student who was also 16 at the time between Sept. 1, 2015, and May 1, 2016.

The intimidation charges state she tried to get a witness to change his or her testimony, but the indictment did not specify the witness with whom she is accused of tampering.

Amero previously taught in the Western Reserve School District at the Mahoning County Educational Service Center. She is a Boardman High School graduate.

She joined Windham schools in 2015 and was a junior-senior high-school principal before taking over as superintendent.

Darryl McGuire, president of the Windham Village Exempted School District board, said Monday the board has set a special meeting for Wednesday, during which he expects the board will change Amero’s leave to unpaid while the matter moves through the court.

Amero did not have disciplinary records on file at either the Mahoning ESC or Western Reserve schools. Similarly, McGuire said the district had not received a complaint about Amero’s conduct in the past.

“It just kind of hit us by surprise,” he said. “We’ll just wait this out and see what happens in court. As far as the board’s concerned, we’re there to run a school [district], and that’s what we need to do. We’ll take care of business.”

Windham police Chief Eric Breiding could not be reached to comment Monday.