Our friends at The Seattle Times have the story on today’s arraignment of Taryn Fairbanks, the 33-year-old former Garfield teacher who has been charged with a felony after allegedly having sexual contact with a 17-year-old student:
Fairbanks pleaded not guilty to the charge. Her bail was reduced from $50,000 to $25,000 in court Wednesday. Fairbanks was making arrangements to post the bail and is not expected to be booked into the King County Jail, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
Fairbanks taught language arts and was a faculty advisor for the high school’s student newspaper.
As we’ve mentioned before, Fairbanks behavior was evidently a poorly kept secret, with rumors of it having spread throughout the school. The incident came to the attention of staff and the authorities when a parent found text messages referencing her on a student’s cell phone. Police are still interested in speaking to anyone who may have information on other illegal contact between Fairbanks and any underage students.
More details at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/theblotter/2012410967_
(considering the nature of the accusations) Insert Language Arts joke here
Not weighing in at all, I know nothing about this teacher or the people claiming the happened.
I understand and appreciate a concern about sexual predators in our school (and agree with it) but I was a teenager once, and remember that teenage boys LOVE to talk-up their “exploits” (if even, they only occurred in their head).
I will reserve all judgment about this pending the outcome of this case.
Congrats to everyone who has resisted casting dispersions one way or another.
Uh. That’s not all she swallowed.
If you haven’t already, consider reading the SeattleCrime.com article on this, in addition to the Seattle times articles linked above:
http://seattlecrime.com/2010/07/13/garfield-teacher-charged-
Admission of the sexual contact and electronic paper trail etc etc. :-/
Wow, I just got done reading Spiffy criticizing others for anonymous online bashing and a few hours later this is what’s posted. Now that is some “constructive criticism.”
If I saw her I’d say it to her face, BK.
Personally I’m not a big fan of adults who use their positions of authority to sexually molest underage kids.
How about you?
running this story is of marginal taste, and allowing comments on it is in extremely poor taste and poor judgement.
the nature of the charges should dictate better judgement by the CDNews staff. Providing an unregulated and immediate forum to post comments does not further the discussion. I would be very interested in this site and others like it if i was the teacher or the young man’s lawyer from the perspective of preventing potential slander, liable and other issues.