A highschool principal in Alameda County has resigned as a part of a settlement after a college district investigation discovered adequate proof that he used a web-based app to speak with a former and present scholar about intercourse, as soon as proposing a “secret school tryst,” public data present.
Jonathan M. Fey, 54, who had labored at Amador Valley Excessive College within the Pleasanton Unified College District since 2022, was notified Feb. 28 that he was being fired, following months on administrative depart. He appealed to an administrative legislation choose earlier than accepting a $254,000 settlement final week that features authorized charges and again pay.
“The allegations made against me are false,” Fey stated in a written assertion issued by a San Jose public relations agency.
Fey’s settlement and disclosure of the district’s investigative findings come at a time when California faculty districts are dealing with a reckoning from lawsuits introduced underneath a state legislation permitting victims to sue for alleged assaults that in some circumstances date again to the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies.
Tough estimations have discovered that the associated fee to highschool districts in financial awards might attain $4 billion in these circumstances that profit from the lifting or enlargement of the statute of limitations. It was not instantly clear if any lawsuits have been filed involving Fey. He taught within the Fremont Union Excessive College and Mt. Diablo Unified College District earlier than being employed in Pleasanton.
EdSource and the Pleasanton Weekly each filed a public data request in search of details about Fey’s employment standing and the investigation.
In an unsigned assertion included within the launch of the Fey report, district officers wrote it’s their “sincere hope that the district’s prompt actions in response to these allegations, and Mr. Fey’s separation from the district, will bring closure to all those involved.”
The assertion urged mother and father who’ve any considerations about their kids or are conscious that they’ve “been subjected to inappropriate conduct” to make reviews to the district and Pleasanton police.
Justin Brown, the Pleasanton Unified College District Board President, instructed EdSource Wednesday that “a neutral third-party investigator substantiated allegations of misconduct by Mr. Fey, which the district and the board of trustees took seriously.” The district, Brown stated, “chose to settle the upcoming (appeal) to avoid subjecting students and staffers the stressors of testifying in an adversarial hearing” and to “preserve resources that otherwise would be spent in litigation.”
Grindr: ‘eyes emoji’
A message from a Grindr account {that a} former scholar instructed faculty district investigators he believed belonged to Jonathan M. Fey. Fey has stated his id was stolen and denies proudly owning the account. Messages the scholar attributed to Fey seem in blue.
The district’s investigation reveals that Fey contacted college students from an account on the app Grindr, dubbed “eyes emoji.”
A message from a Grindr account {that a} former scholar instructed faculty district investigators he believed belonged to Jonathan M. Fey. Fey has stated his id was stolen and denies proudly owning the account. Messages the scholar attributed to Fey seem in blue.A former scholar who graduated in 2023 notified the district in August 2024 that he had been contacted by an individual on Grindr he believed to be Fey.
The coed stated he was at first uncertain the account was Fey’s. However the day after this primary contact with “eyes emoji,” the scholar stated Fey adopted him on Instagram, which, the previous scholar stated, he couldn’t consider was a coincidence.
The previous scholar finally gave the district screenshots of messages he exchanged with the particular person he believed to be Fey. They traded hints about themselves. “Eyes emoji” expressed a need to “hook up” with the previous scholar so long as his id was stored secret, the investigation report reveals.
A second one that claimed Fey approached him on Grindr was one of many principal’s college students at Amador Valley. The district’s investigator discovered that Fey expressed a need to ascertain “a secret romantic and sexual relationship” with the scholar, data present, telling the scholar through the app that he was “hella hot.”
Fey maintained that he was not “eyes emoji,” claiming that his id had been stolen. In court docket paperwork, his lawyer famous that there have been situations of Amador Valley college students posing as different individuals on-line.
A unique former scholar instructed the investigator that she as soon as noticed Fey’s cellphone open to the Grindr app when he was performing as a chaperone at a college occasion.
The district additionally notified Pleasanton Police of the matter, data present.
Because of previous sexual abuse scandals, state legislation requires {that a} faculty district report back to the California Fee on Trainer Credentialing inside 30 days when a trainer, or an worker holding a instructing credential, resigns or is suspended for greater than 10 days on account of an allegation of misconduct. The district should embody a report that explains the allegation and all associated paperwork, which, in Fey’s case, can be an investigator’s conclusion of possible reason behind sexual solicitation.
As soon as notified, the credentialing fee should conduct its personal investigation into potential disciplinary motion, which might consequence within the rescission of a instructing credential required for in search of an schooling job in one other district. The confidential findings might be accessible to potential future employers for 5 years.
Brown, Pleasanton’s faculty board president, instructed EdSource {that a} report about Fey might be made to the credentialing fee.
“The district will comply with its legal obligations,” he stated, after which defer to the fee’s dealing with of the matter.
Editor-at-Giant John Fensterwald contributed to this story.
