Ex-teacher at Christian school admits to sexual contact with student

NORRISTOWN » A former teacher at a Montgomery County Christian school admitted to having an inappropriate relationship of a sexual nature with a student, reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors that includes some time behind bars and sex offender supervision.

Jason Kavistan, 41, of the 7100 block of Lawndale Avenue, Philadelphia, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 5 to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of institutional sexual assault in connection with incidents that occurred with a female student between January 2017 and December 2019 while he was a teacher at Huntingdon Valley Christian

Academy in Upper Moreland.

The plea agreement reached between prosecutors and the defense also will require Kavistan to complete five years’ probation following parole, meaning he will be under court supervision for about seven years.

During the hearing, Judge Thomas P. Rogers made it clear that the negotiated sentence was reached between the district attorney’s office and defense counsel and that he was not involved in the negotiations.

Kavistan is prohibited from having contact with the victim and her family and he is prohibited from having unsupervised contact with minors except his own children.

The former teacher also must undergo a psychosexual evaluation and comply with all recommendations for treatment and he will be placed under sex offender supervision during the parole and probationary periods.

Kavistan, who previously listed an address in the 6800 block of Oakland Street in Philadelphia, faces a 25-year requirement to report his address to state police in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration

and Notification Act.

The Huntingdon Valley Christian Academy, located in the 1800 block of Byberry Road in the Huntingdon Valley section of Upper Moreland, is a private educational school that is part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, according to court documents. The academy offers schooling from pre-kindergarten through 10th grade.

Kavistan was employed as an “Upper Grade Teacher” at the school from September 2011 until he resigned on Nov. 24, 2019, according to court documents.

The girl was between 14and 16-years-old at the time of the incidents, court papers indicate.

The investigation of Kavistan began in February 2019 when Upper Moreland police received a ChildLine report filed by a mandated reporter who had knowledge of a possible inappropriate relationship between Kavistan and a female student, according to the criminal complaint filed by Upper Moreland Detective Todd C. Smith.

When the girl and Kavistan initially were interviewed by authorities they denied that anything inappropriate took place. However, in November 2019, the girl came forward and reported that she and Kavistan had engaged in sexual activity, according to the arrest affidavit.

The girl’s father, according to court papers, informed police that Kavistan sent him a text message on Nov. 25, 2019, in which he stated, “I feel God is telling me to go to you and ask for forgiveness.” The investigation revealed that a day earlier, Kavistan had sent an email to the school’s principal, submitting his resignation.

When the girl was re-interviewed in November she disclosed her relationship with Kavistan began when she was in the 8th grade during the 2016-17 school year and lasted until the summer of 2019, according to court documents. The girl told detectives she and Kavistan met at his residence on multiple occasions while his “wife would be away with the children,” according to the criminal complaint.

The girl said Kavistan kissed her, touched her inappropriately and had other indecent contact with her during the encounters.

The girl also told investigators she and Kavistan met “at school if we could find a place without cameras,” according to the arrest affidavit.

One school official recalled an occasion when Kavistan and the girl were alone in a room with the door and window blinds closed and when she knocked on the door they answered and were fully clothed, according to court documents.

Investigators said they reviewed cellphone records that uncovered both text messages and phone calls between the girl and Kavistan, “estimated to be well over a thousand contacts.”

Other charges of endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of a minor and unlawful contact with a minor were dismissed against Kavistan as part of the plea agreement.

Defense lawyer Geoffrey Vincent Seay represented Kavistan.