A former associate principal at Evergreen High School pleaded guilty Tuesday following allegations that she had sex with a student at the school.
Sadie R. Pritchard, 42, pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court to second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. She was arrested in June 2018 on suspicion of three counts of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor.
Sentencing was scheduled for April 10. Both gross misdemeanor charges carry a maximum of one year in jail, according to court records.
The victim told police May 22, 2018, about having “sexual intercourse with (the) vice principal, Sadie Pritchard, at Evergreen High School,” an affidavit of probable cause reads.
Pritchard started following the student on Instagram around October 2017 and offered to help with homework, according to the affidavit. The contact turned flirtatious, leading to the exchange of nude photos, the affidavit said.
Starting in December 2018 and lasting roughly six weeks, Pritchard and the student allegedly had three or four sexual encounters during school hours in her office. Other encounters allegedly took place in what the affidavit referred to as a testing room.
Pritchard also repeatedly gave the student upwards of $1,000, according to the affidavit. The student denied that the payments were made for sex or to prevent disclosing the encounters.
The student reportedly ended the relationship after thinking about it and becoming mad, the affidavit said.
Emails found by the Evergreen Public Schools human resources director revealed that Pritchard would request that the student be pulled from class and report to her office, according to the affidavit. She also allegedly asked teachers to change grades to a pass/fail status in an effort to improve the student’s GPA.
Pritchard had hired an attorney by the time of her arrest and did not agree to an interview with police.
In 2013, Pritchard admitted to the school district’s human resources director at the time that she talked to students on her private cellphone and gave them money and gift cards. A disciplinary letter blamed Pritchard for “a lack of professional judgment and inexperience,” instead of “any inappropriate or nefarious intention.”
Pritchard was placed on administrative leave in May 2018 “as soon as the school received an initial report she acted inappropriately with a student,” according to school district spokeswoman Gail Spolar. She resigned later in the month.
Spolar said the Vancouver Police Department was immediately called when the school learned about the alleged behavior and that the school district fully cooperated with investigators.
At the time of her arrest, Pritchard was one at least five Evergreen Public Schools educators that had been investigated since 2015 for inappropriate or sexual behavior with students. In August, Jerry Miller, a physical education teacher at Ellsworth Elementary School who had worked in the district since 1986, was arrested after allegedly molesting a student at the school. His trial is set for next month.
Source: https://www.columbian.com
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