Former teacher’s file shows years of concerns about interactions
There are two DUBLIN — types of child molesters, an expert told Dublin parents recently: the situational offenders who abuse because they are drunk or mad or happen to be alone with a child; and the preferential offenders, who follow a compulsive pattern of picking victims and conditioning them for abuse.
Their predilection becomes their life’s focus, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Francey Hakes told an audience of about 100 at the Dublin Community Recreation Center.
“Please don’t mistake me; I’m not exaggerating,” Hakes said.
Dublin City Schools hired Hakes, who has specialized in child sexual-exploitation cases for about 20 years, to teach employees, students and the community this week. A longtime high school teacher and coach in the district, Gregory R. Lee, 52, was caught in a sexual relationship with a student in the spring.
Lee’s personnel file, which The Dispatch reviewed, showed that there had been concerns about him for most of his 22 years teaching in the district.
Lee, a Dublin Scioto High School social-studies teacher and track coach until this past spring, pleaded guilty in federal court on Sept. 14 to child-pornography charges involving a 15-year-old girl. He will spend at least 15 years in prison.
After sentencing in November, Lee will still face two state charges of sexual battery. Lee’s trial in Franklin County Common Pleas Court is set for Dec. 5.
On Monday night, Hakes emphasized that abusers don’t usually look “creepy.” They work especially hard, she said, at making the community think they are upstanding people, wellliked and successful. Like the predators they are, they have learned to hide in plain sight.
Hakes produced examples: Tennessee gym teacher Pamela Rogers, who took advantage of a 13-year-old boy in 2004: “She’s beautiful, and nobody sees her coming,” Hakes said.
There was Kyle Cox, the winning basketball coach at an elite private Indianapolis high school. He was sentenced in 2016 to 14 years in prison for sexting with a student and admitted to relationships with two other teens.
“Nobody knew but the girls and their inner circle,” Hakes said. Kids often know what’s going on, she said.
Offenders identify a victim, establish a connection, gather information, fill that youngster’s needs or wants and lower his or her inhibitions, Hakes said. Often that involves bending rules for the child, such as providing alcohol or special privileges, so the youngster feels complicit and won’t tell.
Why don’t other students tell an adult? They are afraid that their friend is going to get in trouble. He or she seems happy.
“The offender has convinced these children that they’re in love,” Hakes said.
But the future for children who are sexually abused can be grim: depression, eating disorders, drug abuse, suicide attempts and trouble having normal relationships.
This past spring, school officials were tipped off to a relationship between Lee and a female student and called authorities. The district put Lee on leave, and he resigned May 25.