Wuchae, 40, had taught at South Brunswick High School since August 2004 and Hager, 16 had just finished her sophomore year there. He met Hager when she was only 14 and starting with the cross country team he coached for the high school. Hager's parents noticed that Wuchae was closer than "normal" to their daughter, dropping her off after events but with him living only 2 miles from her parents, it seemed to be easily explained.
Windy's parents, Dennis and Betty Hager, said that they had done everything they could to keep them apart after finding out it was a deeper-than-usual friendship between a teacher and a student. They said that they talked to Wuchae, went to school officials, pleaded with police and sheriff's office detectives, other teachers and students at South Brunswick. The school system did little to help them, law enforcement could not confirm their concerns and their daughter Windy, came to hate them they said. It was after a year of emotional warfare with Windy and a failed bid to get a restraining order against Wuchae that the Hagers say they reluctently signed a consent form allowing her to marry her coach.
Wucae had been suspended with pay on May 2 and both the school system and the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office investigated the allegations but didn't find enough evidence to merit charging or firing the tenured teacher. Immorality is one of the grounds for termination of a tenured employee and I believe that was proven by his very recent marriage.
"As a lifelong educator, I am truly shocked and disheartened by what transpired," Brunswick County Schools Superintendent Katie McGee said in her statement.
If the Hagers had not signed the consent form, as the minor's legal guardians, North Carolina law would have prevented the marriage. This in turn may have only served to prevent the marriage for two years, time in which Wuchae could continue to contact Windy as they were already, texting and e mailing as late as 3 am.
The Hagers had stated that they felt they had no other choice and that their daughter had now possibly thrown away all the dreams for her future. It does seem as though the Hagers tried to prevent contact between the two but did they do all that they could have? I am sure that there were other options available, moving, switching their daughter to another school, boarding her at any of the well respected schools out of state where she could continue to excell in running without Wuchae's influence. They could very simply said "no" to her as well.. no phone, no computer and if you choose to run away to see him, we will have you arrested.
I am sure that many high school students still feel the "crush on my teacher" feelings that have gone on for decades. Some may say he is a pedofile, he's not a pathetic, mal-adjusted 40-year old, I believe Wuchae is nothing more than a predator. Within one year of hiring at that high school he was beginning the careful grooming of a 14 year old girl even though he knew the distance he should have kept from any student is carefully monitored by school systems. He had much more to offer than the average 19 year old boy that most parents try to keep their daughters from, he had a job, car, house and the experience to keep driving a wedge between Windy and her parents.
Wuchae seems to have been very adept at avoiding detection legally and instead of slinking into the shadows when confronted by the Hagers, the school system and the Sheriff's Office, he continued to manipulate Windy. I certainly would be interested in knowing what his past teaching record has been as well as his record of relationships with women his own age is, if there ever were any. When contacted Tuesday, June 19th around 10pm, Wuchae declined to comment. What is there to comment on? He's unemployed and hanging out with his dog and the girl he carefully and systematically claimed as his wife.
Windy did not let go of her dreams, numerous parties are liable for allowing a predatory 38 year old man two years in which to steal those dreams from her, taking her from carefree youth to child bride.
Update: posted July 5
On Tuesday, July 2 2007, Brian Shaw, the attorney who is advising the county school system on how it responded to the recent relationship and marriage of one of it's teachers, Brenton Wuchae, released a statement to the press.
Monday, the Board of Education convened and passed a resolution citing a state statute that allows the release of information in a personnel file if it's "deemed essential to maintaining the integrity of the board."
"Media accounts of the situation give the impression that school officials did nothing to keep the student and teacher Brenton Wuchae apart. Nothing could be further from the truth," states the memo from Brunswick County Schools Superintendent Katie McGee.
As I had previously posted, school officials claimed they had investigated and found nothing, while the Hagers told the press they had gone repeatedly to school officials with their concerns. Last month, they gave the Star-News a copy of a letter by South Brunswick High Principal Vann Pennell in which he stated he had investigated the case personally and had not observed an inappropriate relationship between the two. That letter was dated April 26 and on May 3, Wucae was suspended with pay from the school system.
McGee states that sometime last month she approached Wucae and gave him the choice of resign or be fired. This was after Pennell had ordered both Wuchae and Windy not to have any contact with each other..... in October of 2006. They seemed to be complying with the directive until May 2007 when the school system received reports of their contact within school. School officials claim to not "know what happened outside the school grounds." It was then that Wuchae was suspended for insubordination and his dismissal was recommended.
Both the school system, the Oak Island Police Department and Brunswick County Sheriff's Department claim that they failed to uncover any signs of a romantic relationship between Wuchae and Windy. Even her parents have stated that they never witnessed any things such as cuddling or hand-holding. Dennis Hager though has said the text messages and email evidence should have been enough for Wuchae's dismissal.
The state is reviewing whether to revoke Wuchae's teaching license.
Maybe I am not getting this correctly......... in October, the school principal felt that there was enough evidence of something inappropriate as to specifically tell Wuchae to have no contact with Windy. He also felt that it was serious enough as to personally watch the two within the school setting and find if there was an inappropriate relationship. April 26, he mailed out a letter that everything seems fine to him and 8 days later, the school system, after receiving reports of a note and discreet conversations, he is suspended.
If everything was fine, I would think it was totally out of line for the school system to suspend him for what they report is the reason. Wuchae had six months notice before his supension that he was being watched. He had that many months to plot away from the school setting on how to continue to manipulate Windy.
I believe that when Superintendent McGee claims she approached Wuchae with her proposal, she knew there was a lot more than "nothing" going on between a teacher of hers and a student she was supposed to be protecting. As for the loss of his teaching license.... that should be investigated fully I believe. No teacher who did what Wuchae managed to do, should be allowed to teach. This was much more than a case of "inappropriate contact" with a student, this was a case of two years of careful work to avoid his firing before he could claim his prize.
I believe the marriage was a surprise to the school board. They may have felt that he would discreetly move away, possibly taking Windy with him and the news of their eventual wedding would not have been splashed in their local media.
Update: posted July 6
When the news broke about the wedding, I along with many others, was led to believe that those in charge had done the "right thing" by firing Wuchae the day after he married Windy. Apparently, this was not the case according to Harry Wilson, attorney for the North Carolina Board of Education. Wuchae resigned and married her the same day.
"As a board member, I feel let down by the administration and those handling this particular case," stated Brunswick County school board member Ray Gilbert.
He faulted Superintendent Dr Katie McGee and assistant superintendent of human resources Terry Chestnutt specifically for not revealing the depth of the contact they knew Wuchae was having with Windy. He states that the board did not know about the cell phone bills that document hundreds of text message interactions between the two and had they known, they would have moved to fire him months ago.
Betty Hager said back in April that Sheriff Ronald Hewett had assured her that he had "hand-delivered" those bills, which were part of the Sheriff's Office investigation, to McGee in December 2006. Gilbert states that he has yet to see that they exist but he would have moved to have Wuchae terminated or suspended since they would have proof of his inappropriate conduct.
Wilson, who is well versed in state education policies, stated in an interview, that Wuchae's alleged improper behavior which included, late-night text messages and emails, taking Windy shopping and out to dinner are all in direct violation of state rules for school employees. Just one newspaper article would be enough to ban Wuchae from teaching in North Carolina and most likely, anywhere in the U S. Wuchae's most recent actions he said, the application for and certificate of marriage, may well make Wilson's decision a little easier.
The North Carolina Board of Education, as a state agency, determines license revocations and they plan to pursue it soon. He sees Wuchae's actions as a pretty clear violation of the rules. If officials decide to ban Wuchae in that state from teaching. it is highly likely that education leaders in the other 49 states will follow suit. It is still possible that he could teach if the board revokes his teaching license but Wilson feels that it would be highly unlikely since it would be entered into a national database.
"The student should have been the number one priority, not the employee. I don't know if we could have controlled their marriage but we vould have terminated him. An opportunity to get rid of a bad teacher was missed. For that, I offer my sincere apologies to the Hagers," said Gilbert.
While I still believe that the Hager's should not have signed the consent for their daughter, it seems that someone within the school system more than dropped the ball in this case. Not only should Wuchae be banned from teaching in my opinion, there should also be a few more people sweating out an investigation. If it can be proven that individuals chose to hide facts in this case, they too should be fired. I'm not sure why the media chose the route of letting the school officials soft pedal their responsibility but it looks to me like a few people in charge of Windy's welfare in relation to school, did less than their duty.
Update: posted July 11
Dennis and Betty Hager have filed a lawsuit against the Brunswick County Board of Education, stating that the school officials failed to protect their daughter. The suit, filed July 10, is seeking at least $20,000 from the school district for allegedly failing to discipline former teacher Brenton Wuchae and causing the family emotional pain and suffering.
"I can say without reservation that knowing all the details of this matter, no reasonable person would expect any better performance by the Board of Education or the administration," Superintendent Katie McGee said in her statement Tuesday.
Board of Education Chairman Scott Milligan has said that the lawsuit is completely without merit. The Brunswick Board of Education released a detailed account last week of the school's involvement in the case. They said that they had closely monitored and limited the couple's relationship but that they had never found any evidence of romance between the two.
I am not going to say that I wish the Board of Education any luck in beating this lawsuit, I don't believe they should. They are entrusted with protecting their students first and they had ample evidence of months of inappropriate contact between the two. Unless Wuchae and the Brunswick School system had a clause in his contract as tenured faculty, that allowed him to have seemingly unlimited contact with a student in and out of the school setting but prohibited "romance" then I suppose they have a legal leg to stand on. I would think it is going to be a tough call to prove that his time spent with her was "school related."
They hired a teacher who as far as I have seen, wasn't romantically involved with anyone his own age. He spent two years getting very close to a 14 year-old and I am sure that he had ingrained in her, not only how important he was to her and how much he loved her, but the danger of anyone "seeing them" publically express their love. Wuchae wasn't taking the "team" out to dinner or shopping and I doubt he was spending all of his spare time emailing and text messaging all his students. He was doing that with one, young female student and when her parents alerted the school to their displeasure, they had a duty to protect her, even if they may have felt they were whining excessively about "nothing." I believe when they did complain, the time Wuchae spent with their daughter now fell into the realm of "inappropriate."
I'm sorry Ms McGee and Mr Milligan, I am a reasonable person and I feel you failed in your job and that this lawsuit, however after the fact it is, does have merit.
2 comments:
I think this goes much deeper than 2 years ago... who names their kid Windy and really expects her to be stable?
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