A Skykomish gym teacher is accused of grooming and raping a student. The victim’s family has hired a lawyer, who believes there may be other victims.
Court documents obtained by KIRO 7 outline the alleged abuse in disturbing detail. Investigators allege the abuse took place over the course of more than a year and started when the victim was in the eighth grade.
“The preliminary facts are pretty shocking,” Michael Pfau, the family’s attorney, said.
According to investigators, Daniel Lee Bubar taught physical education at Skykomish K-12 school and bonded with the young girl over a mutual interest in soccer before turning the relationship sexual.
Pfau aims to find out whether his client was Bubar’s first alleged victim or one of many.
“This perpetrator is 62 years old and there is a chance he had been doing this for a long time,” he said.
In a statement, the Skykomish School District said it is conducting its own investigation into the incident. A board meeting was set for Wednesday but was called off due to a power outage.
Pfau intends to find out whether any employees or students knew what was reportedly going on and why nothing was done to stop it.
“Our job is to investigate how this happened in a school that, I think, has 52 students maybe,” Pfau said. ”Very small school and things don’t happen in a vacuum.”
Before any of that, there is a criminal case to deal with.
“I think these allegations, when you read them, are really shocking for everyone involved,” Casey McNerthney, spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said.
Court records include interviews with the victim, her mother and Bubar himself. They allege the sexual abuse happened dozens of times, that the pair regularly messaged through their school email accounts, that Bubar bought the victim illicit gifts and that he urged investigators to take him to jail when it all came to light.
“Teachers and educators have a special responsibility, a special trust with their communities,” McNerthney said. ”It’s really hard for the good teachers when that appears to be broken.”
Classes at the school have been called off for the week to give parents and students time to process the situation. Bubar is due in court Monday.
