Documents show a decade-long pattern of sexual abuse, grooming, and stalking by the late principal of the Springfield Academy of Arts and Academics towards a now-former student. KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.
The Register-Guard received school and police records indicating Mike Fisher first contacted the victim in 2006, when she was 14-years-old. Fisher had been in his position for a year, and a timeline shows he repeatedly forced the girl into sexual encounters and kept up contact even after she graduated, moved out of the county, and got married.
Former school administrators have pointed fingers at each other over who knew what and when, over a sordid case that only saw a formal police investigation emerge in late January. Springfield Police spokesman Scott McKee says the earliest report of suspected abuse was filed in 2007.
“Related to some hand-holding, conduct," McKee tells KLCC. "And Mr. Fisher was giving the student rides home from school.
"Dependent upon the context of the information, we feel like that at that point in time, we should have made some sort of a investigation, we should’ve made further inquiry.”
When police did investigate earlier this year, Fisher was put on leave. He committed suicide a day later.
A spokeswoman for the Springfield Schools says there will be an administrative review on how mandatory reporting procedures were followed. She calls the account “horrific and appalling” and says that their primary concern is the victim’s well-being and privacy.
Copyright 2018, KLCC.
