A 62-year-old male gym teacher and dean of students in a tiny, mountain town in Washington state has been charged with sexually abusing a female student for nearly two years, starting when she was 13 and mostly taking place on school property.
King County prosecutors on Wednesday charged teacher Daniel Bubar with second-and third-degree rape of a child and communication with a child with immoral purposes while working in the Skyomish School District, located in the Cascades mountains about 60 miles east of Seattle.
The case has so rocked Skyomish, a town of less than 200 residents, that the district suspended classes until Monday as school officials deal with what prosecutors called “a horrific abuse of power,” the Seattle Times reported.
Federal records show that the school system has ten teachers serving only 52 students in grades K through 12.
Shockingly, Washington state records show that in addition to his other school titles, Bubar was the district’s Title IX coordinator, the school official responsible for preventing and investigating sexual harassment.
Prosecutors accused Bubar of grooming the girl with gifts and manipulating her to believe she was in love with him, which culminated in numerous sexual acts with him on school grounds.
Fox News Digital reported:
According to investigators, the female student, now 14, transferred to the school in seventh grade and bonded with the teacher over a shared interest in soccer after experiencing the traumatic loss of a friend at her previous school. She was allegedly given gifts and special treatment from the teacher before the interactions became sexual in eighth grade.
The alleged abuse, which included sexual intercourse, continued for about a year and a half and took place in multiple locations on campus, including in closets, stairwells and the gymnasium during the school day, according to the probable cause statement.
The teacher is also accused of providing the girl with alcohol and buying her sexually oriented gifts, including a miniskirt, lingerie, and a sex toy.
In a statement Tuesday, the district said it only learned about allegations against Bubar a week ago, when King County sheriff’s deputies entered the school and arrested him while he was teaching.
When he was confronted, Bubar reportedly denied being involved inappropriately with the student but then allegedly confessed.
“Bubar stated several times that he was ‘guilty,’ and everything that had happened was his fault,” a deputy said in the charging documents, according to My Northwest.
The Seattle online news outlet quoted at length Bubar’s words reported in the document, including the teacher begging to be taken to jail.
“Bubar cried several times while discussing the impact he’d had… he stated, ‘I’ll be perceived as whatever it is, I get it, I own that, I deserve it, but I just hope the people that know me, it doesn’t matter. Perceptions are going to change.’”
“There’s going to be no trust in the district, all of my colleagues, my wife, and my son. How do I go home? I don’t want to go home. I don’t deserve anything. Can you just take me to jail, I don’t want to go home. I can’t. Please take me somewhere. I can’t. Put me in jail, please.” Bubar said, according to deputies.
The case first developed in early March when the student’s mother reportedly discovered nude images and videos on her daughter’s phone and contacted authorities to report that her daughter told her she had been involved with the teacher since she was in seventh grade.
The district apologized to parents.
“We know there is hurt and anger and we want every parent and student to know that we are committed to immediate steps to ensure all students are safe and protected, now and for the future,” it said in a statement this week. “We too are horrified.”
Educator sexual misconduct with students has been described as “rampant” across the U.S. in studies of the problem over for the past two decades. While it is female perpetrators preying on young male students who generate the headlines, studies show that actually nine out of ten cases involve male offenders.
Prosecutors also accused Bubar of acting as a sexual predator, a count that requires a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted.
Bubar is being held on a 750,000 bond in the King County jail and is expected in court Monday to be arraigned on the charges.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets, which documents one of the worst cases of child sex abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
