Officers ease parents’ minds

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

Metro Police went to the Alexander Dawson School in Summerlin on Monday to reassure parents that there is no evidence their children's physical education teacher, arrested on charges that he sexually abused students while working in Texas, had committed any crimes in this jurisdiction.

Christopher James Williams, hired as athletic director at Dawson in September, was arrested at the school on Desert Inn Road at the Las Vegas Beltway on Friday. The school subsequently fired Williams, officials said.

Williams, 31, is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center, awaiting extradition to Houston on five felony counts related to his tenure at the Holy Spirit Episcopal School where he taught for five years.

The arrest warrant was issued for Williams by the Houston Police Department late last week, authorities said. At that time the information was entered into the FBI's national database. When Houston law enforcement investigators determined Williams was working at Alexander Dawson they requested the FBI's assistance in locating and arresting him. The FBI then turned to Metro's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for help.

Williams underwent a rigorous interview process which included a criminal background check and drug test before he was hired at Dawson, said Ann Marie De Marco Rehm, director of external affairs for the private school. Williams had a clean record and "outstanding" references, Rehm said Monday.

"If we had checked (Williams' background) as late as last Thursday we wouldn't have known anything," Rehm said. "(The Houston school staff) is as shocked as we are."

Dawson has about 400 students with tuition and fees ranging from $14,650 for kindergarten to $15,200 for eighth grade.

More than 100 parents of Dawson students showed up for Monday's meeting with school and law enforcement officials. Metro Police Sgt. Russell Shoemaker, told parents there was no "direct or indirect" indication that Williams engaged in any criminal activity while in Las Vegas, Rehm said.

Williams does not hold a Nevada teacher's license but his job at the private school did not require one, said Keith Rheault, deputy superintendent of instruction for the Nevada Education Department.

While public school teachers in Nevada must be licensed by this state, private schools may hire individuals holding licenses from other states or who have a bachelor's degree and at least three years experience.

Rehm said Williams met the three-year experience and bachelor's degree requirement. She was unaware if he held a teacher's license from Texas or another state.

Teachers seeking licenses in Nevada must submit their fingerprints for an FBI background check. Individual school districts or private schools are responsible for checking an individual's work history and references, Rheault said.

Several years ago Nevada's teacher licensing application asked individuals whether they had ever been convicted of a felony, allowing people with cases pending -- but unresolved -- in other states to withhold the information.

Nevada has since changed the law to close that loophole, Rheault said.

While parochial schools are exempt from the state's teacher licensing requirements, many conduct their own background checks on applicants.

Las Vegas Catholic Diocese Schools Superintendent Richard Facciolo said Monday all teachers and administrators at the eight campuses he oversees undergo criminal background checks.

"We have an extensive process in place and we believe it minimizes the chances that something will happen," Facciolo said. "But no system is foolproof, unfortunately."

That is why staff at the diocese's schools are required to participate in ongoing workshops that cover what is, and is not, appropriate behavior, Facciolo said.

"We talk not just about what is and is not appropriate behavior but warning signs of when those lines may have been breached," Facciolo said. "It is a process of constant vigilance."

State law forbids school employees from engaging in sexual conduct with students.

Over the past three years 16 Clark County School District employees have been arrested on a variety of sex-related charges, ranging from molestation to possession of child pornography to engaging in an ongoing sexual relationship with a student. At least two additional school employees working at area private and parochial schools have also been arrested on similar charges.

Teacher Duane Johnson was arrested in March 2001 and charged with felony lewdness with a girl younger than 13. Johnson had been hired by the Clark County School District to teach at Child Haven, a facility for abused and neglected children. Authorities later learned Johnson had been fired from a teaching job in Provo, Utah, after admitting a consensual relationship with a student who was 18 at the time.

As a result of the multiple arrests, the state has tightened its licensing process and conducts more thorough checks of applicants, Rheault said.

Carol Barnwell, spokeswoman for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, said mental health professionals have been offering assistance to families with students at the school where Williams taught. The diocese has been cooperating fully with the police investigation, Barnwell said.