Suspended Shawnee school official charged with sex crimes
SHAWNEE — An assistant athletic director at Shawnee Public Schools was accused Thursday in a felony charge of raping a student in 2011.
Ronald Gene Arthur, 51, also was accused of forcing another student into oral sex In May after repeatedly contacting him over a cellphone.
Arthur was suspended Aug. 2. He has maintained he did nothing wrong.
“He has always denied having relations with anyone that was still a student or under age,” his attorney, Shelley Levisay, said Thursday after the
charge was filed.
He faces three felony counts — second-degree rape, forcible sodomy and soliciting sexual contact with a minor by use of technology.
He faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
Arthur was the boys basketball coach for 16 seasons in Shawnee before stepping down last year. Four of his teams made the state tournament.
He has been assistant athletic director for six years.
“I believe that people put in positions of trust with our children should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Pottawatomie District Attorney Allan Grubb said after the charge was filed.
He called on agencies that serve children to make sure “that they take all necessary and proper care to know who they allow around children at their facilities.”
The Shawnee Public Schools superintendent, April Grace, came under fire after a sheriff’s deputy revealed Arthur has been in trouble before.
Accusations against Arthur date back to 2007, the deputy reported.
“He has been allowed to be around students for the last 14 years while the Shawnee Public Schools knew he had sexual abuse allegations against him from current students at the time,” Deputy Amber Soule reported in a search warrant request.
Grace in August said the school district does not condone “the alleged behavior by Mr. Arthur or any school employee entrusted with student well-being.”
She also said that she was restricted in what she could say about “insinuations” against the school district because of the law on personnel matters.
Grace has been superintendent at Shawnee Public Schools since 2016. She is now running for state schools superintendent as a Republican.
Arthur came under investigation after a former student reported the two met in May and again in July for oral sex on a dead-end road.
The former student was 17 at the time of both encounters. He said they met both times after chatting on the social networking app Grindr.
Prosecutors charged Arthur with forcible sodomy only over the first meeting, on May 22. They alleged the victim was still a student at the time.
Prosecutors alleged in the technology count that Arthur repeatedly contacted the minor on a cellphone between March 1 and July 23 in order to coerce him into sexual conduct.
They alleged in the rape charge that Arthur in 2011 plied an 18-year-old student with alcohol and other “anesthetizing agents” into sex at his home.
“This matter has only recently been reported to Law Enforcement,” prosecutors stated in the charge.
Arthur turned himself in Aug. 16, after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was released after posting a $100,000 bond.
“There may be more coming,” the district attorney said Thursday. “This is an ongoing … investigation and we encourage anyone else that may have information on this alleged perpetrator to come forward.”
A termination hearing for Arthur is set for next week. He is expected to resign instead.