Band teacher guilty of a dozen sexual charges

Man taught at three area districts before investigation cost him his job.

A former Clark County teacher was found guilty Friday of 12 of 13 felony counts involving sexual acts with students at a Logan County school.

Riverside High School band teacher John “Timothy” Shook, 35, was found guilty of six counts of sexual battery, five counts of gross sexual imposition and attempted sexual battery.

Five former students testified against him and said that he had sexual relations with them.

Three were from Riverside High School, his most recent school, and two were his students eight years ago at Covington High School in Miami County. The current charges did not involve Covington, however.

Shook was also a teacher at Clark-Shawnee Local Schools beginning in the 2007-2008 school year until a reduction in force at the end of 2009-10, according to district records.

In addition to the victims’ accounts, the prosecution cited other inappropriate actions Shook performed publicly at Riverside.

“ … Foul language with his 8th grade basketball girls’ team, dropping his pants in front of the choir, paddling students in the butt, giving female students rides home alone,” said Eric Stewart, chief assistant prosecutor.

In his closing arguments, Stewart explained the difficulties that the five girls who came forward faced and recalled one of their accounts.

“In my head I was screaming for him to stop,” Stewart said, quoting one of the victims.

The teacher’s defense focused around one victim’s diary that detailed multiple sexual encounters with Shook. She said the sex was consensual.

The defense argued it was not the victim’s handwriting and the diary was written well after the encounters.

The allegations were brought to light after Riverside High School officials and the Logan County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation into an incident where Shook spanked one of the alleged victims in class as part of a birthday tradition. The 16-year-old girl complained of the incident to her mother, and later said she had sex with Shook multiple times, including in a janitor’s supply closet, weight room and teacher’s bathroom on school grounds. Further investigation revealed two other female victims claiming they were molested by Shook, Stewart said.

After Shook’s indictment and subsequent arrest were publicized in March, the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office was contacted by a witness to similar acts while Shook was a teacher in Covington.

A judge will sentence Shook next month.

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