Rees was the responsible adult and he needs to be held accountable for the pain and harm he caused.”
For all his efforts to make me feel like an equal co-conspirator, Mr. She added that “going through this experience as a teenager - at a time when our brains are still rapidly developing - is particularly damaging. “That summer in 2001 was my first experience of an adult romantic relationship and it impacted my ability to trust myself, to listen to my own internal compass, and to understand what a healthy, loving relationship looks like.” “I have lived with deep psychological scars as a result of the behavior I was subjected to by John Rees,” the 2001 graduate wrote. Which, I think, means it wasn’t meaningfully consensual at all.” It was consensual only to the degree that meaningful consent is possible within the power dynamics I am describing.
“It was highly emotionally involved, psychologically invasive, morally injuring, and not at all reciprocal. “Despite the fact that it was not primarily physical, it still had a tremendous negative impact on me,” the 2008 student wrote. However, both students also provided searing accounts of the lasting impact of their teacher’s behavior on their lives, after he initiated romantic relationships with them. One of the students described an incident where she felt the teacher had tried to go further but had backed off when she expressed hesitancy. The names of both former students, as well as other former students named, are redacted in the new documents received by The Beachcomber.ġ-ExhibitsAandB-Rees-VIB-5_… by Elizabeth Shepherdīoth students said their entanglements with their greatly admired, but married and much older teacher included some instances of kissing and touching after they were 18 and graduated. The 2008 student argued in her letter to the district that the timing of his declaration, along with the fact that Rees himself initiated the conversation, “speaks to premeditation and grooming on Mr. That statement, the attorneys alleged, was also a lie, refuted by the 2008 graduate’s contemporaneous journal entries, which detailed that Rees had told her he loved her four days after her high school graduation - feelings he said he had had for some time. (Notes from an interview with Rees as part of the 2008 investigation can be found here.)ĭuring that investigation, the attorneys said, Rees had denied having other liaisons “with any other current or previous students of the district” - a statement refuted by the 2001 graduate’s previously undisclosed allegation that Rees had initiated a romantic relationship with her as well in the summer following her graduation.Īdditionally, the attorneys said, Rees told the district’s investigators in 2008 that he did not “realize those feelings ” for the 2008 graduate until July. The attorneys and the 2008 student asserted that Rees had “lied, omitted information, and downplayed his responsibility” during a previous district investigation that took place in the fall of 2008, examining his relationship with the 2008 student. These actions disqualify Rees from further employment as a teacher, the attorneys said.
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