Charges dismissed against Kansas teacher accused of inappropriately touching students

Paul Wanger, a longtime Wichita West High School teacher in his first year at South Barber USD 255, went back to work this week after charges of inappropriately touching girls were dismissed.

His math classroom looks different now.

It has been moved to the library, where there are open windows for transparency. And, at his request, cameras record his lessons, Superintendent Mylo Miller said. Another math instructor will be added to the class next week. It’s both to help with accountability and to help catch up the students who fell behind when Wanger was suspended in January after the allegations surfaced.

Wanger, who said the accusations against him were untrue, started back Monday. He said it was hard to return to the classroom after what happened, but he has a contract to teach and a personal responsibility to return, especially with state assessments next month.

“I’m glad to be back in the classroom,” he said.

Wanger said he hasn’t thought about whether he would return next year.

Miller said the community has been divided over the issue. Miller said he has told people they should find middle ground in that they all, including Wanger, care about the safety of the children.

Miller said he first learned of complaints against Wanger in October. After an investigation, Wanger was suspended with pay in early January then charged in court.

Charges were dismissed during a short trial on March 17.

Wanger’s attorney, Alan Goering, said the “case just kind of crumbled” as the state’s three witnesses either didn’t show up or recast what they said happened. He said District Attorney Daniel Lynch asked the judge to dismiss the case. It was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can’t be refiled.

Lynch, asked by The Eagle for comment, said by email that the case was dismissed about two hours into the bench trial.

Goering worries that damage has already been done.

“It’s horrible,” he said. “It’s horrible. This man, his entire career has been teaching children and then his name is virtually destroyed. How do you unring the bell once those types of allegations were made?”

Allegations included that he touched a girl’s rear while passing her in a crowded cafeteria, touched a girl’s toes to get her feet off the desk and touched a girl’s leg as he removed it from stretching across the aisle.

The original charges against him, four misdemeanor counts of battery, involved three minors born in 2007 and 2009.

At trial, the girl in the cafeteria incident said ‘it might have been an accident,”’ Goering said, adding Wanger said it didn’t happen. The girl in the toe incident wouldn’t testify, Goering said. The girl who alleged Wanger touched her leg testified. Wanger said her leg being across the aisle would have been a safety issue, but he also didn’t think it happened.

Goering said he thinks the incident started as a “gossipy sort of thing” involving a few students who didn’t like Wanger, including one who was struggling in his math class. Then parents became involved, he said, and it “threw a stick of dynamite in the middle of it.”

Goering said he had character witnesses for Wanger, including a former colleague from West High and people from his church, but the case was dismissed before they could testify.

He said school policy says a teacher will be reinstated if charges are dropped, so it didn’t require school board approval.

Miller said Wanger’s long history in teaching math has been helpful, providing upper-level math classes for the district of around 220 students. Wanger worked at West High from 1998 until the start of this school year. At West, he was the Scholars’ Bowl coach.

He started teaching 7-12 grade math this school year at South Barber. Miller said he hopes some of the precautions Wanger asked for or agreed to will be looked at as a “good faith gesture.”

“It’s not what you want,” Miller said about the whole situation. “You battle through these things and hopefully you come out better than where we started.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2023 at 12:00 AM.