Ex-worthington Christian coach faces 10 sexual battery charges

A former girls high school basketball coach and teacher at Worthington Christian School is facing arraignment Friday on ten counts of sexual battery involving two students.

Jason Paul Dawson, 35, who now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, was extradited to Ohio and booked into the Franklin County jail earlier this week.

A Franklin County Common Pleas Court grand jury indicted Dawson earlier this month on ten counts involving two different minor students at Worthington Christian for alleged crimes between 2020 and 2021.

At least one of the students was a player on Dawson's team, court records show.

Charlotte police arrested Dawson last month after Columbus police charged him with three counts.

According to court records submitted by police, a juvenile told a police detective that she and Dawson had sex about 70 times between 2020 and 2023 and provided text messages as evidence, including a video Dawson filmed of them having sex.

Dawson was head coach of Worthington

Christian's girls high school basketball team from 2019 to 2022 when he left to take a job in North Carolina, the school said.

He graduated from Worthington Christian in 2006 and was first hired there as a teacher and coach in 2014, according to the school. jlaird@dispatch.com @Lairdwrites