Officials Look into Warden Teacher’s Past

By Kristin M. Kraemer, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

Sep. 20–WARDEN — State officials are investigating whether a former Warden teacher has repeatedly had inappropriate relationships with students during his 15-year career.

One day after Kelly Smith resigned from his job as a Warden High School math teacher and coach, the district’s superintendent sent a letter to the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction about recent claims that had surfaced in the small Grant County town. State law requires district officials to file reports of any allegations of unprofessional conduct by certificated employees.

In her letter to OSPI’s Office of Professional Practices, Superintendent Sandra Sheldon said: “… I have a reasonable basis to believe that Kelly Smith has committed an act of unprofessional conduct including grooming behaviors.”

Smith, who is married and lives in Moses Lake, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Sheldon said the school district placed Smith on paid administrative leave Aug. 27 as the allegations were being investigated. Three days later, he handed his one-sentence resignation to Warden High Principal Leonard Lusk.

“Although the district did not complete its investigation, I am left with the reasonable belief that a violation of the Code of Professional Conduct has occurred,” Sheldon said in her letter to OSPI, which was provided to the Herald in response to a public records request.

The code addresses “sexual misconduct with students.”

Smith, 39, has been cleared of any criminal activity by Grant County sheriff’s investigators, who interviewed the woman with whom Smith has most recently been linked. The woman, who graduated June 1 from Warden High, reportedly told detectives nothing happened before she was 18. However, the Herald is not naming her because of allegations the relationship may have started while she was still a student.

Grant County Sheriff’s Office began its investigation after receiving copies of a letter and photographs that were circulated to several media outlets. The letter detailed allegations of misconduct by Smith during his time in the Warden School District and previously in the St. John-Endicott Cooperative Schools.

Under state law, a school employee who has sexual contact with a registered student of the school — who is at least age 16 and under 18 — can be charged with second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, a gross misdemeanor.

The state Office of Professional Practices received Sheldon’s letter Sept. 4. It may be several months before it gets to Smith’s case because the office has 128 open cases with only four investigators, said Director Charlie Schreck.

Smith’s teaching certificate remains valid until any disciplinary action is taken, Schreck said. But he said any school district looking to hire Smith, during the investigation process, can check a statewide certification database, which will show in “big capital letters ‘COMPLAINT’ and our phone number.”

Schreck said his office has had no other complaints about Smith. The office has subpoenaed Smith’s personnel files and any records of investigations from Warden and St. John-Endicott.

Smith graduated from the University of Montana’s School of Education in June 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in education specializing in mathematics.

He worked for St. John-Endicott in Whitman County for the 1992-93 and 1993-94 school years. He was a middle school math teacher and an assistant coach for high school football, high school boys basketball and middle school track, which included both boys and girls, said St. John-Endicott Superintendent Rick Winters.

Smith then was in Warden for 13 years, where he taught in the middle and high schools and coached sports at both levels, including girls basketball and football.

After suspending Smith on the first day of this school year, Sheldon prepared a letter telling him to stay off school district property unless asked to return. She also directed him to have no contact with “current or former students, including students who have graduated and are over 18 years of age.”

The letter was not sent to Smith because he quit that day. The school board held an emergency meeting Aug. 30 to unanimously approve his resignation.

Sheldon said aside from this incident that has drawn negative attention to the district, there are many things to be proud of in Warden schools, including good teachers and programs and students eager to excel. She pointed out the high school’s wrestling team, which has won seven state championships, and their five Gates Millennium Scholars in the past six years.

In the town of about 2,500 residents, 971 kids attend the three-school campus, which was built for 300 students in 1959. The district has 130 employees.

Before the recent allegations, Smith had not been reprimanded since January 1999, when in a fit of anger he threw a basketball at a student during practice, his personnel records show. The middle school girl was hit in the face, and Smith admitted “he was wrong and ‘it would not happen again.’ “

The records show he was suspended from basketball practice for one week, missed one game and had to apologize to the team.

A year before, Smith was ejected from a middle school girls basketball game for aggressively approaching a game official. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association sent the district a letter of complaint.

And in April 1997, a middle school girl filed a sexual harassment complaint, saying Smith was leaning against a drinking fountain when he “put his right foot under her left leg and left it there for a few seconds.”

Then after a basketball game, Smith sent the girl for a medical kit and “slapped her buttock with his open hand,” said a letter from the Warden Police Department in Smith’s file. The incident also was investigated by the school district and its insurers, but they were unable to substantiate any of the allegations and no action was taken.

Smith responded that he was trying to get the girl to stop talking while taking a test. He said he “gently tapped the side of her leg with my toe” and told her not to talk.

Then-Superintendent Dennis Brandon said in a letter that Smith’s admission to touching the girl’s leg and “that you did take the girl home alone (on another occasion) were in my opinion not the most appropriate responses to the situation at hand.”

School records show Brandon, in a meeting with Smith, brought up “rumors about something happening in St. John. … It is coming up again in the community.”

In a written response, Smith said when he arrived in Endicott in 1992 he had no place to live, so he befriended the family of a student and lived with them a few weeks. He said he later often ate dinner with the family, went on vacation with them and took a weekend and summer job on their farm.

“However, I never dated either of their daughters or had any other than a professional relationship with them while I was employed there or while they were students at St. John High School,” Smith wrote on April 30, 1997. “We did maintain our friendship when I left the district. I am now seeing one of the girls on a personal and social basis. She is no longer a student, and is now 191/2 years old.”

Smith acknowledged “the community did not look highly on it (but) … I did not leave the community based on the rumors.”

Smith’s wife is a 1996 graduate of St. John High School, according to school records. She was named in one district document when Smith was seen giving her a ride to Endicott school in his staff car in December 1993.

“The fact you secured permission from parents for trips between the aforementioned dates is a positive step from a liability perspective, but it conveys a lack of understanding and appreciation for administrative direction. This was improper,” said Suzanne Schmick, who was the Endicott Middle School principal.

Smith was written up several times in the second year of his provisional teaching assignment for giving rides to students in his staff car on at least eight separate occasions, his records show.

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