SHAWNEE — Dozens of parents, educators and area residents turned out Saturday, Aug. 20 at Coffee N’ Crafts coffeeshop in downtown Shawnee to voice their concerns over their school board and superintendent’s handling of reported sexual misconduct by former Shawnee Assistant Athletic Director and Basketball Coach Ronald Gene Arthur.
Those concerns were voiced to Republican candidate for State Superintendent Ryan Walters at a locally organized meet-and-greet event for Walters and several additional candidates for local offices. State Sen. Shane Jett (R-Shawnee) was also in attendance. Walters and Jett listened attentively as one person after another recounted their experiences with Arthur and with Shawnee Public Schools administrators.
Questions were raised about who knew what and when they knew it, whether Arthur’s reported misconduct had been reported to the Oklahoma Department of Human Services or law enforcement. Parents asked why Arthur was allowed to remain in contact with students for so long when district officials were, at the very least, aware of his behavior and the allegations made against him. Questions were plentiful. Answers were few.
A common theme emerged amid the questions asked and the stories told over iced coffees and baked goods — fear. Fear of retaliation against students who might still be enrolled in Shawnee schools if it got out that their parents had expressed their concerns. Fear of reprisals against educators currently employed by Shawnee schools if it got out that they had spoken aloud things they say they were instructed to keep to themselves.
Arthur, 52, was arrested by Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s deputies July 24, 2021, after allegations of sexual assault were levied against him days earlier by a then-17-year-old former student. PCSO Deputy Amber Soule reported finding eight “admonishments and suspensions of Ronald Arthur for his vulgar and sexual comments to male students and vulgar comments about female students, allegations of having inappropriately touched a male’s buttocks, sending inappropriate text messages to students and having contact with students alone when he was not allowed to per his previous reinstatements,” according to an affidavit of probable cause filed Aug. 11, 2021, in Pottawatomie County District Court.
Though arrested in July 2021, reported incidents of misconduct against Arthur date back to at least 2007 in Shawnee. Current Superintendent April Grace, who is running against Ryan Walters in the Aug. 23 Republican Primary Election, became superintendent of Shawnee schools in 2016.
Speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, current Shawnee teachers said knowledge of Arthur’s alleged misconduct was widespread throughout the middle and high school staff, and they were warned by administration officials during the 2015-2016 school year not to allow Arthur to be alone in a room with any student. They say they were given no explanation for the warning, and they were advised to report any incident involving Arthur to school administrators, not to contact any outside authority.
After hearing from numerous concerned parents and Shawnee educators, Jett sent a letter to the Oklahoma Attorney General calling for a Grand Jury investigation into the allegations against Arthur “for the grooming and sexual assault of students in the Shawnee Public School District and the cover-up by the District Superintendent, the administration, and the Board of Education as well as allegations of intimidation and reprisal against teachers, parents, and victims.”
In the letter, dated April 6, 2022, Jett told the AG’s office, “As you know, there have been media reports of abuse by Ron Arthur in the Shawnee Public School. For more than fifteen-years, Ron Arthur allegedly sexually groomed and molested children in Shawnee Public Schools. Since our initial communication, I have interviewed parents, students, teachers, school employees, and victims. The alarming thing that I discovered throughout my hours of interviews is that this narrative is not merely one of sexual predation by the alleged pedophile, Ron Arthur, but also a systematic pattern of school administrators and school board members ignoring his behavior and/or actively protecting Arthur rather than the children he victimized.
“Our community feels betrayed, justifiably so, by the school leaders who had an opportunity to stop this alleged child predator 15 years ago. Ron Arthur’s work history spanned five counties with as many school districts. We fear that this pattern of alleged abuse and cover up, may well cover the totality of his teaching career and not be solely isolated to the Shawnee school district. Because of the aforementioned reasons, we believe justice can only be achieved by authorizing an independent investigation by a multi-county Grand Jury under the supervision of the Attorney General of Oklahoma. It is to that end, that we petition your office for a redress of our grievances.”
Jett said April 11 that he received a response from the AG’s office, acknowledging receipt of his letter and asking for additional information.
“We are pleased to have received a prompt call from the Attorney General’s office responsive to our request for investigation and have been assured they will thoroughly review the complaints,” Jett said. “Our schools are supposed to protect students first and foremost, but it appears that didn’t happen for these victims.”
Arthur is next scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. Aug. 24 in Pottawatomie County District Court.