District Committed to Music Program

An Oregon high school choir teacher has been placed on leave amid allegations of an inappropriate text exchange with a former student.

Rick Johnson, who teaches vocal music at Sisters High School in central Oregon, has been placed on leave while the school district investigates, the Oregonian reports.

According to KOIN, the student, who was 17 at the time of the exchange, told the school district about the texts on March 25.

The school district referred the matter to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office and Teacher Standards and Practices Commission, which confirmed on Monday that an active investigation is underway.

"We want to, as much as possible, limit impact on any of our students," Sisters School District Superintendent Curt Scholl tells the Sisters Nugget.

"Our intent is to still run the program," he says.

"Once we have a clear picture of how Sisters School District is going to handle staffing of that classroom, we'll sit down and talk about how we can help keep that program on track, both short and long-term."

Johnson, who has been with the school district since 2001, has been a vocal music teacher for two decades.

Read the Entire Article