RENTON, Wash. — A paraeducator at the Renton School District has been arrested for alleged groping and inappropriately messaging with a former student.
According to probable cause documents, a career advisor at Hazen High School began talking with the victim when she was a student back in 2022.
KIRO 7 is not naming the 36-year-old suspect because he has not been formally charged.
Court documents say the advisor would take the victim and classmates to get food or go to trading card shops because they were in a Pokémon club. The docs allege that the suspect drove the teen alone more frequently than in a group setting.
The conversations then turned sexual in nature, according to court documents.
The victim told investigators that the suspect started asking for nude photos of her, and asked her to re-enact sexually explicit books she read over the phone, docs said.
She also told investigators that she was about 16 years old when he groped her and touched her over her clothing inappropriately, according to court documents.
“[The victim] stated that she was confronted by two friends who stated they felt uncomfortable with how much time she spent at the career center and with [the suspect]. She ignored their concerns. It wasn’t until later on she confided in a counselor who stated that she should report it. She had always felt responsible for what was happening and didn’t fully understand how wrong it really was,” court documents said.
According to court documents, the victim is now 19 and in college and came forward to investigators this month.
The suspect has been booked into King County Jail for investigation of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.
KIRO 7 has reached out to the district for a statement.
Bail has been set at $20,000.