Third Boone County Educator Sexually Abuses Student

According to Police, for the third time in almost three months, another Boone County educator sexually abused a student. Sgt. L.D. Hensley of the West Virginia State Police confirmed a warrant issued for the arrest of Brandon Arvay, a teacher at Scott High School. According to Sgt. G. Rush of the Medina County Sheriff’s Office, Arvay was taken into custody in Medina County, Ohio where he awaits extradition to West Virginia at the Medina County Jail.

Brandon Arvay, age 27, a math teacher at Scott High has been charged with five counts of sexual abuse by a custodian or guardian. He also faces charges of allegedly using a minor to film obscene material. Police have reported that there are multiple victims of current and prior students and some of the alleged crimes date back over the past few years. Arvay is expected to have an extradition hearing soon and should be back in Boone County to face allegations within the next two weeks.

This is the third Boone County educator this year charged with allegedly sexually abusing students. Former Van Principal Garth Mock was charged with allegedly having sex with two female students, ages 17 and 18, at his Kanawha County home. Sherman High School teacher and Christian after-school program leader, Alan Robinson Jr., was charged at the end of the school year with an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old female student and soliciting a minor via a computer. The parent of a 15-year-old student found sexually explicit text messages from Robinson on the girl’s cell phone, according to Boone County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Chad Barker.

Debra Lopez-Bonasso, education coordinator for the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services, said the cases illustrate the importance of Erin’s Law, legislation that passed last session that creates a task force to study child sexual abuse prevention. In some states, “Erin’s Law” has referred to the implementation of mandatory sexual abuse prevention education in schools. In West Virginia, lawmakers decided to start by solely creating the task force, but said mandatory sexual abuse prevention education in schools could turn out to be one of the task force’s recommendations.

The insurance company lawyers for schools almost always defend these lawsuits by arguing that administrators did not know about the abuse before it was disclosed publicly. If they can win that argument, they can avoid accountability because victims can only hold the school system accountable for the harm if they can prove the school administrators knew or should have known about the abuse and did nothing. At the Heavens Law Firm, we’ve successfully litigated these cases, but holding the school system accountable requires a comprehensive understanding of this area of law and very aggressive litigation tactics. The families of these students should contact out attorneys who know the law and have what it takes to hold important people accountable.

Source:

https://coalvalleynews.com/top-stories/296/scott-high-teacher-charged-with-sexually-abusing-students