Anchorage Daily News

An Anchorage teacher has been charged with molesting a child in Washington and is under investigation for molesting another child in Anchorage.

Alex Mayo, 32, was teaching second and third grade at Rilke Schule German charter school until Anchorage School District officials learned of the pending out-of-state charge in mid-December, the district and the Anchorage Police Department said at a joint news conference today.

He was suspended from teaching in December although he is still a district employee, contingent on the outcome of the criminal case, said district spokeswoman Heidi Embley.

Mayo is currently in Washington, out of jail, according to Washington authorities. He is not allowed to leave that state or have contact with children.

After the Washington charge was filed, the School District began its own investigation of Mayo's tenure here and discovered an Anchorage child with a report of abuse. District officials referred the case to Anchorage police and police now say the child had three incidents of inappropriate contact with Mayo in 2006.

The Washington charge stems from a 1999 incident involving a 9-year-old boy. Police in Anchorage would not say the sex or age of the child in Alaska.

None of the accusations involve Mayo's students or behavior on school property. They were the children of friends, police said.

Before teaching at the German charter school this year, Mayo taught at Muldoon Elementary, Village Charter School and North Star Elementary. He was also a specialist with the Safe and Drug Free Schools program.

He started working for the district in 2000.

MEETING WITH PARENTS TODAY

In the wake of the news, School District officials met with staff at the German immersion school, contacted all parents with children attending the school, and plan on meeting with parents of Mayo's students today.

School officials first heard of the Washington allegations in early October. They waited until mid-December, when they learned he would be charged with a crime, to take Mayo out of his classroom and put him on leave. Superintendent Carol Comeau said school officials "clearly felt nothing had occurred" at the school.

Comeau said the usual background check of Mayo was conducted before he was hired and there was no record of any wrongdoing.

The Anchorage case is being forwarded to the district attorney's office, said Sgt. Cindi Stanton, head of the Police Department's crimes against children unit. Police are recommending Mayo be charged with three counts of second-degree child molestation, which indicates the crime involves inappropriate touching but not penetration.

The 1999 incident occurred in Snohomish, Wash., said Laura Twitchell, deputy prosecuting attorney for that county. Mayo was charged with felony child molestation. Police and prosecutors there are also investigating possible further abuse of the same boy.

Police and school officials asked that anyone who believes Mayo had inappropriate contact with their child call Stanton at 786-2668.

Stanton said of the roughly 350 child sex abuse cases investigated by Anchorage police in a year, few of end up with charges because the cases are often a child's word against an adult's, and often the crimes occurred years earlier and evidence has been lost.

Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.