A Tacoma Community College music instructor is on paid leave while administrators investigate a complaint he convinced a high school girl she could improve her singing by getting herself sexually aroused.
The instructor was suspended in mid-September after the college received a complaint regarding a 17-year-old student, said Dan Small, TCC's vice president for institutional advancement.
The News Tribune is not publishing the instructor's name because he has not been charged with a crime and the school's investigation is ongoing.
The girl was enrolled at TCC under the Running Start program, which allows high school students to take some college classes for credit. She took two music classes taught by the instructor, who joined the TCC staff in 2005 and earned tenure during the 2009-10 school year.
"We followed our college policies and procedures and acted quickly when we got a complaint," Small said Thursday. "We take student safety very seriously."
A comprehensive investigation into the allegations is underway, he said.
Small declined to give specifics about the investigation, saying it was a personnel matter.
Efforts to reach an attorney for the instructor were unsuccessful.
The girl provided a detailed account of her allegations in a petition she filed last month in Pierce County Superior Court seeking a sexual assault protection order against the teacher.
The girl wrote in the petition she was having difficulty with her vocal range during her TCC classes, and that her instructor offered to give her private lessons after class to help.
After a few routine sessions, the teacher asked if she wanted to participate in a scientific study that experimented with various ways to expand vocal range, including sexual arousal, the petition states.
The girl said she initially said no but later agreed when the instructor insisted "in a manipulative and overpowering manner," the petition states.
"As each scientific study session took place, things began to change from a typical voice lesson to (the instructor) asking me to participate in various sexual related acts," the girl wrote.
She said he asked her to take off her clothes, engage in sexual foreplay, use an item to arouse herself and play the piano while he aroused himself, the petition states.
"He placed his hands on my unclothed torso front and back, upper chest and lower torso during each session," the girl wrote.
Much of the activity took place in a prop/costume closet, she said.
The girl wrote she and her parents were summoned to the college last month. Two TCC staff members asked if she had been part of a private study involving one of her instructors, the petition states.
The girl wrote in her petition she contacted the teacher before the meeting to ask him what was going on.
"He called me on my cell phone to inquire what I knew and to quiz me on what I would be saying at the meeting," the girl wrote.
Her petition asks a judge to restrict the instructor from the girl's home, high school and TCC.
"Today, I walk in fear that he will continue to harass and pursue me," she wrote.
Superior Court Commissioner Mary E. Dicke issued a temporary protection order Sept. 28. A hearing is scheduled next month to determine whether the order should be made permanent.
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
Twitter: @TNTAdam
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