The Bainbridge High schoolteacher accused of having sex with one of her 10th-grade students was suspended and kicked off school property before an associate principal called 911 to report a possible sexual offense.
Records and emails released by the Bainbridge Island School District Friday provide new details on the quick work by school and district officials to remove Jessica M. Fuchs from her classroom shortly after an administrator at the high school learned of accusations of improper contact between Fuchs, a first-year science and chemistry teacher at BHS, and a 16-year-old boy.
Fuchs was arrested late Thursday, May 7 and charged in Kitsap County Superior Court with two felony counts, first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor and tampering with a witness, and also communication with a minor for immoral purposes, a gross misdemeanor.
Court records detail an extended sexual relationship between Fuchs and the 16-year-old, who was a student in her 10th-grade biology class. Records show that an associate principal became concerned about Fuch’s behavior after talking to her after school on Monday, Feb. 23.
Fuchs allegedly admitting texting the student and knowing his home address, and the next day, Associate Principal Kristen Haizlip spoke with the victim’s mother and she said she had a suspicion that Fuchs was involved with her son in an inappropriate way. The mother told Haizlip that she had seen Snapchat conversations on her son’s phone with someone named Jess.
By that evening, Haizlip and Associate Superintendent Peter Bang-Knudsen were emailing each other about the district’s next steps.
In a confidential email to Haizlip, Bang-Knudsen told her he had spoken with Bill Coats, the district’s attorney, and Coats would contact risk management and bring in an outside investigator.
Bang-Knudsen also wrote that the teacher would be placed on administrative leave the morning of Feb. 25, and they planned to deliver a suspension letter to Fuchs at 8:15 a.m., before the start of school.
“We will collect keys, and computer, and review [the suspension] letter,” Bang-Knudsen wrote.
“The technology department has been contacted and the teacher’s accounts will be frozen tonight. We will escort her off district property. We will not allow her back into the classroom without an escort,” he added.
Bang-Knudsen also asked Haizlip to ask the student’s parents for paper or electronic copies of communications between the student and teacher, but also wanted to find out if the parents would be willing to turn over the student’s phone to the district.
“We are taking this very seriously, and want to have a full picture of what occurred,” he wrote. “Handing over the phone might be concerning to the parents, but it would be very helpful in our thorough investigation.”
Fuchs was told in her suspension letter, dated Feb. 25, that she was being suspended and an investigation was forthcoming.
“Based on information that you provided to your Associate Principal, Ms. Kristen Haizlip, as well as concerns brought by a parent, there is sufficient concern relating to your maintaining professional staff/student boundaries (Policy 5253) that I am placing you on paid administrative leave, pending further investigation of this matter,” said the letter, signed by Bang-Knudsen.
The letter asked Fuchs to turn in her keys and not come onto district property unless her visit was prearranged by himself or BHS Principal Mary Alice O’Neill.
She was also ordered to turn in her computer and not access the district network or email system and told to have no contact — “electronic, verbal or any other contact” — with the student.
Fuchs was also told not to contact the student’s parents, other students, or other school district employees except her union representative.
Fuchs was asked to provide lesson plans for a substitute teacher, and be available during normal working hours to meet with an investigator.
“You may not interfere, or try to influence others, in the pending investigation of this matter,” Bang-Knudsen wrote.
After the meeting with Fuchs, Haizlip called 911 at 10:05 a.m. to report a possible sexual offense.
The district emails and Fuch’s suspension letter were released by the district Friday in response to a public records request made by the Bainbridge Review on Feb. 25. The records were withheld until the police investigation was complete, at the request of the Bainbridge Island Police Department.
Fuchs was arrested Thursday, roughly 72 hours after Bainbridge police received a forensic report from the Washington State Patrol crime lab on the results of what was found on a computer and other electronic devices that were seized at her home in early March after a search warrant had been obtained. Police discovered text messages, iMessages, emails, videos and voicemails between Fuchs and the student.
The messages detailed sexual activity between Fuchs and the student, according to court documents.
Fuchs was hired last September to teach science at BHS. The district said Fuchs, a 2007 graduate of Bainbridge High, received a full background screen and did not have a criminal record.
Fuchs remains in Kitsap County Jail. A court appearance has been set for Monday, May 11 in Kitsap County Superior Court.
