The Bucksport school district has hired a Bangor law firm to investigate allegations of “inappropriate conduct by a staff member toward students,” according to documents obtained by the Bangor Daily News by a Freedom of Access Act request.
Neither the documents nor school officials have identified the person who is being investigated.
James Boothby, superintendent of RSU 25, declined Thursday to disclose any specific details, including how recently the alleged misconduct occurred, whether the staff member is still employed by the district, or what position the staff member held or holds. RSU 25 operates four schools in Bucksport that serve students from the towns of Bucksport, Orland, Prospect and Verona Island.
Although allegations are not uncommon, Boothby said this is only the second time in his 15 years with RSU 25 that he can recall hiring an outside investigator to look into misconduct claims.
“In general, RSU 25, as well as virtually every other school district in this state and in the country, receives allegations of inappropriate conduct by a staff member toward students,” Boothby said Thursday in response to a Freedom of Access Act request filed by the Bangor Daily News. “At RSU 25, we take all allegations seriously and work hard to protect the rights of all involved.”
The prior incident that resulted in an outside investigator being hired was an alleged assault involving two students that proved to be unfounded, the superintendent said. He could not recall the year when that prior investigation took place but said it was roughly a decade ago.
The agreement to hire law firm Eaton Peabody to investigate the claims was signed on July 20 by Boothby on behalf of RSU 25. The document does not describe what kind of alleged misconduct is being investigated. According to the agreement, Eaton Peabody will charge a “special hourly rate of $300” for the investigation — $100 less than the firm’s normal hourly rate of $400, Boothby said — and will limit the cost of the investigation to $12,000.
The current investigation is not the first time in recent memory that the Bucksport community has grappled with claims that someone entrusted to work with local minors may have harmed children.
In 2002, former local youth sports coach Travis White was tried in court in Ellsworth on charges that he had sexually assaulted children who played on his teams. White, who had served on the Bucksport school board in the late 1990s, was convicted by a jury and sentenced to serve eight years in prison.
White, who is now 53 years old, denied the allegations against him during the trial, which sharply divided Bucksport between his accusers and his supporters. But after being convicted he publicly admitted to committing some of the assaults.