SARANAC, Mich. – Officials at Saranac Community Schools have learned the hard way that it’s wise to be up front with the community when a teacher is accused of sexually molesting a student.

For Saranac Superintendent Maury Geiger, that has meant writing at least five painful form letters to residents over the past two years.

The letters were necessary because three district teachers have been accused of, or investigated for, sexual misconduct with students in that short period of time.

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The first two cases were as odd as they were troubling, while the last investigation, the result of allegations by “other students at the school,” was recently dropped with no charges filed.

The first case involved a 59-year-old English teacher who began having sexual relations with a student when she was 16, eventually impregnated her and was sentenced to less than a year in jail.

The second cases goes back to last fall, when a female teacher’s misconduct proved to be legal because she was allegedly sleeping with 18-year-old students.

All of that has resulted in a lot of explaining to do for Geiger, who came to work for the district in the summer of 2011, just as the investigation of the first case was under way.

Geiger was invited to be interviewed by EAGnews, but the superintendent explained that he could not due to ongoing police and school district investigations.

The most he’s been able to do is try to reassure the community about the district’s determination to work through the crisis while protecting all students.

“It is now, has been, and always will be, the policy of Saranac Community Schools that the district will not tolerate inappropriate relationships between staff and students, regardless of the student’s age,” Geiger wrote in a letter to the community, dated Feb. 4 of this year. “Further, the district will not tolerate sexual relationships between staff and recently graduated students where there is a nexus between the former student’s time as a student and the genesis of the relationship.

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“Our students, your children, are not to be viewed or treated as objects of sexual or romantic interest. The district is deeply committed to ensuring the safety of your children in the school setting. If the district determines that a staff member has acted inappropriately toward a student or recently graduated student, the district will take immediate action to prevent any future threat, and to address the staff member’s inappropriate actions.”

Less than a year in jail

The first case to plague the district involved 59-year-old Krag Sanford, a longtime high school English teacher. One media report said he initially had sex with student Amy Hendrick when she was 16.

Police began investigating the relationship between Sanford and Hendrick in November 2010, and Sanford entered into a separation agreement with the district at about the same time.

It wasn’t until May 2012 that Sanford pleaded no contest to charges of distributing sexually explicit material to a minor and accosting a child for immoral purposes.

In July 2012 he was sentenced to nine months in the county jail, 24 months of probation, was ordered to register as a sex offender and lost his teaching certificate.

A few months later he was sentenced to six months in jail and four years of probation on the charge of accosting a child for immoral purposes. The two jail sentences were served concurrently.

It wasn’t the end of the world for Sanford. Hendrick appeared at both of his sentencing hearings, announcing she was pregnant with his child and planned to marry him. He also received the final $34,000 of his teaching salary for 2010-11 and was awarded a lifetime pension of about $21,000 per year plus retiree health benefits.

It was later reported that the baby died before birth.

The fallout for the school district was painful.

A local media outlet uncovered a memo from former Saranac Superintendent Jeanette Adams to school board members, dated Oct. 29, 2010.

Adams noted in the memo that Sanford was on medical leave and the district was negotiating a separation agreement with him. Her language seemed to indicate that she was aware of the sexual nature of the relationship between Sanford and Hendrick.

“It might be necessary to pay for the remainder of this year’s contract with him to make that happen,” Adams wrote. “We have been able to keep knowledge of this very quiet and would like to continue to do so.

“I have alerted our insurance company as they would be handling our case should charges be filed against Krag or if there were charges that we somehow mishandled the situation.”

Some residents were also enraged that Sanford worked as a substitute teacher in several other area districts before his teaching certificate was revoked, claiming the other schools should have been warned.

Geiger, in a letter to residents in 2012, said at the time of Sanford’s resignation, “there was not sufficient evidence to bring any disciplinary action against the teacher.”

They were all at least 18-years-old

Just as the Sanford saga had sunken in, the district was hit with another teacher molestation scandal.

This time the situation was extra maddening, because there was no legal recourse.

Saranac High School officials contacted the local sheriff’s department on Nov. 6, 2013, after a student’s guardian found text messages on the student’s cell phone regarding a sexual relationship between a teacher and another student, according to a report from the Sentinel-Standard.

Law enforcement officials were able to determine that the teacher and student had alleged inappropriate contact on Sept. 26 and Oct. 17 of that year. They also alleged that the female teacher had sex with several current or former students, the news report said.

But there was nothing they could do, because all of the students were at least 18-years-old at the time.

“They were all 18,” Ionia County Prosecutor Ron Schafer was quoted as saying. “For a charge of that nature, you’ve to got to show they were not yet 18. Based on the evidence, we could not yet do that.’

In a letter to the community, Geiger made it clear that the district was conducting its own investigation, and seemed to suggest that it might attempt to fire the teacher in question.

“It has long been the position of school districts throughout Michigan that the law should be expanded to prohibit sexual relationships between school employees and students of any age,” Geiger wrote. “Nevertheless, it is important to note that, unlike law enforcement, the district is not constrained by the terms of a criminal statute when addressing teacher-students relationships in the employment context.

“Once the staff member is offered an opportunity to respond to the allegations, the district intends to complete its investigation and take action in accordance with the information discovered during the investigation. Such action may or may not include the filing of teacher tenure charges seeking the staff member’s dismissal.”

Incredibly, only a few weeks passed before the district was forced to deal with more troubling allegations.

“The Ionia County Sheriff’s Department is conducting an investigation after allegations surfaced against a male teacher,” a recent report from Fox 17 said.

It was later learned that the teacher had been accused of having an improper relationship with a 17-year-old female student.

An updated news report last week suggested the investigation was over and no legal charges would be filed. It said the investigation began due to allegations made by students.

Is it possible that the previous scandals has made everyone in the district – particularly students – wary and suspicious of any form of relationship between teachers and students?

“Sheriff’s detectives interviewed several people regarding the allegations and conducted computer and cell phone forensic analysis. All information was compiled and a thorough investigation was conducted,” the Sentinel Standard reported. “The case was forwarded to and reviewed by the Ionia County Prosecutor’s Office Thursday. No criminal charges were brought against the male teacher.”

School officials were no doubt relieved at that outcome. But given the recent pattern in their district, they are probably holding their collective breath until the next case unfolds.