A Oklahoma middle school teacher has been arrested and charged with seven counts of lewd acts to a child, ranging from 2012 to 2017.
Parents of the Woodward Middle School students said they reported physical education teacher Benjamin Hall’s activities to the assistant principal because the school’s head principal, Sarah Hall, is the accused teacher’s wife, KOTV reported.
The parents said there was no follow-up.
An arrest affidavit said the complaints were brought to the school’s attention as early as 2017, but the students say Hall, 47, was touching them inappropriately since his first year at the school in 2012, according to The Oklahoman.
Hall would often strike the students in the buttocks with a meter stick or his hand, the affidavit says.
“In addition … Hall has made several comments of a sexual nature directed toward the young adolescent females,” the detective wrote.
The court documents said one student reported he told her “he just wanted to see how well it would bounce back” when he struck her buttocks, KOCO said.
Other students reported that he would stand behind them while he had them stretch, but wouldn’t let them change out of skirts or dresses for class.
“Students complained. They didn’t see anything coming of it. Parents complained. Didn’t see anything coming of it,” Woodward Police Capt. Darren Navratil told the station, adding the he didn’t know why the behavior wasn’t reported to police.
Hall, who also teaches health, was also the school’s softball coach for a time. One former player told investigators Hall cupped her breast, and another said he put his hand on her upper thigh, making her so uncomfortable she quiet the team her senior year.
Navratil said investigators believe there are more victims and encourage them to come forward.
Hall was arrested at his home on Thursday and prompted bonded out of jail. He is due back in court on Tuesday. The school district said it had put him on administrative leave.
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[Featured image: Benjamin Hall/Woodward County Sheriff’s Office]
