Teacher faces sex charges involving fifth-grade girls
Man, 55, allegedly violated 7 students at North Seattle school By SAM SKOLNIK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
King County prosecutors charged a Seattle elementary school teacher yesterday with child molestation after police said an investigation found that he had touched or kissed seven female students since 2001.
Laurence "Shayne" Hill, a fifth-grade teacher at Broadview-Thomson Elementary School in North Seattle, went on administrative leave May 2, said Seattle Schools spokeswoman Patti Spencer. District officials sent a letter to Broadview-Thomson parents the next day, she said.
Hill, of Edmonds, has been teaching at that school since at least 2001, according to the police report.
Prosecutors charged Hill, 55, with one count each of first-degree and second-degree child molestation, and with two counts of communication with a minor for immoral purposes.
He has not yet been arrested, said Dan Donohoe of the King County Prosecutor's Office. He will be arraigned Thursday.
Police and school officials most recently became aware of an allegation of inappropriate touching last month, when the mother of a student came to her 11-year-old daughter's classroom to drop off lunch.
Hill had his arm around the girl's waist and his hand was on her buttocks, the mother reported to school Principal Jeanne Smart. Smart called Child Protective Services, which in turn contacted Seattle police.
A police investigation determined that over at least the last four years, Hill had had female students sit on his lap and had hugged them or touched them in a sexual nature, according to court documents.
This was not the first time school officials had been warned of Hill's behavior, according to the police report.
In October, Smart received a complaint from a staff member that Hill had been seen holding the hands of two fifth-grade girls and stroking their backs with his thumbs.
At that time, she warned him to maintain "appropriate physical boundaries" with his students, according to the report.