It’s been a banner week in America for male high school administrators accused of sodomizing young boys.
In North Carolina, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s office arrested a former Fayetteville middle school principal on several grotesque charges, reports local ABC affiliate WTVD.
David Ellis Edwards, 49, faces nine counts including second-degree forcible sex and taking indecent liberties with a minor. There are also undisclosed charges describes as crimes against nature.
Three victims — so far — told detectives that Edwards forced them to engage in sex acts or touched them inappropriately. All three victims are male. They ranged from 11 to 14 years old at the time.
Police say the rapes occurred between 2009 and 2011 at Douglas Byrd Middle School and Ramsey Street Alternative Middle School.
At least once, WTVD reports, a parent of one of the boys was sitting in a waiting area near the office as one of the alleged incidents happened.
Edwards quit his job as principal a few weeks ago. He told school district officials he would be pursuing other job opportunities in the education industry.
The former principal is also a pastor at First Missionary Baptist Church in St. Pauls, a rural North Carolina town.
An attorney for Edwards indicated that his client will plead not guilty.
Meanwhile, in affluent, stucco-laden Carlsbad, Calif., a longtime administrator, teacher and mentor at the prestigious Army and Navy Academy was arrested Thursday on suspicion of molesting at least six students, reports San Diego’s KPBS.
The charges against Jeffrey S. Barton are expected to include two felony counts of sodomy and 14 counts of oral copulation with a minor by force. He currently in jail pending bail of $2.1 million. His arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday.
Barton, 56, resigned over the summer after logging 18 years at the academy as both an English teacher and the chief administrator in charge of lower school academic and residential life programs.
“He was too friendly with all the little kids,” a junior at the all-boys school told San Diego Fox affiliate KSWB.
“There were allegations against him for years, so it was just a matter of time before they got this guy,” Orange County attorney Vince Finaldi told The San Diego Union-Tribune. “His nicknames on campus were pedophile and Mr. Creeper, and they knew about those nicknames because they were in the (lawsuit) depositions.”
Finaldi has filed a couple of sexual hazing lawsuits against the Army and Navy Academy.
In a statement, school president Stephen Bliss, a retired brigadier general, said administrators will conduct an internal investigation. He added that student safety is among the academy’s primary concerns.
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