Police are investigating a claim that a staff member at an Oklahoma school took inappropriate pictures of a middle school student. Owasso police receiveda report of the allegations on November 13, and they notified Owasso public schools administrators of the claim. Few details have yet been released,but police have confirmed that they are investigating a sexual assault allegation at the Owasso 8th Grade Center.
A police spokesman released a statementsaying, "Due to the ongoing criminal investigation, the sensitive nature of the allegation and the age of the alleged victim, it would be inappropriatefor the Owasso Police Department to make further comments at this time.�
The district's assistant superintendent says that in addition to the police investigation, the school district is launching its own investigation intothe allegations against one of its employees. She said, "The last thing we want to do is assume anything from a report without fully investigating.Because school district student confidentiality is always a priority, we always want to conduct an investigation in as respectful of a way as possible.�
The investigation brings to mind an incident involving a teacher taking inappropriate pictures of students at another Oklahoma school at roughly the sametime of year.
You may remember the case of Kimberly Crain, a McCloud third grade teacher who invited several girls from her class over for a Christmas tree decoratingparty in 2011. Crain was arrested after one of the girls told her parents that, during the party, the teacher had the girls dress up in bras and pantiesand pose provocatively for pictures. Crain also took video of the nine girls, aged 9 to 11, as they undressed and changed.
As the investigation continued, police learned that the teacher had some of the children Skype with "Uncle G" during class time at school. Uncle G wasidentified as Gary Doby, a retired early childhood development professor living in Pennsylvania. Crain and Doby had met years prior when Crain wasa student and Doby her professor at Oklahoma Baptist University.
Doby was considered to be the mastermind behind the conspiracy who manipulated Crain into sending him sexually explicit images of the girls. He pleadedguilty to
18 counts of sexual exploitation of a child under age 12, one count of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation and one count of lewd molestation.He was given 18 life sentences for sexual exploitation, 10 years for conspiracy, and 20 years for lewd molestation, with all sentences to run concurrently.He must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole, which means he will be 104 years old before the possibilityof parole.
Crain pleaded guilty to the same 20 counts, plus an additional 11 counts of possession of child pornography. In exchange for her plea, she was sentencedto 45 years in prison. Like Doby, she must serve 85 percent of her sentence before being given the possibility of parole, meaning she will be nearly88 years old before she may be eligible for parole.
