Marietta Professor’s Identity and Nature of Allegations Revealed

The identity of the Marietta City Schools teacher facing charges and the nature of the charges have been released, according to police records.

Christopher Joseph VanReeth, who, according to Marietta Municipal Court records, is 36 years old and lives at 107 Meadow Lane, Marietta, is listed in a Marietta Police affidavit in support of probable cause for a summons as a teacher who faces an assault charge.

VanReeth faces a charge of first-degree misdemeanor assault, according to court records.

He is listed as an intervention specialist at Marietta High School on the district’s website, and Ohio Department of Education records show in July 2022 that he was issued a five-year professional license as a K-12 intervention specialist for teaching areas of “mild/moderate”.

Records also show he teaches Science 7-8 and Math 7-8 at Marietta High School.

Mention of a Marietta City Schools teacher facing charges was first made in a Thursday post on the district’s Facebook page by Interim Superintendent Alison Woods.

“We are aware of the allegations regarding one of our staff members and we are taking the situation very seriously,” she said in the post.

The district refrained from making a public statement at the time the allegations were made out of respect for and consistent with the law enforcement investigative process and assigned the teacher to home, directed them to have no contact with the students and – forbade to be found. school property, according to post.

Marietta Police received an email sent from Marietta High School Interim Principal Tim Fleming on October 4th. This was originally from the mother of a high school student, according to the affidavit.

In the email, the mother said her son came home on Oct. 4 and told her about an incident that happened in third grade with VanReeth, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit shows, the child advised “she had her head down during class when Mr. VanReeth grabbed the hood of her sweatshirt and pulled her head up off the desk.”

The affidavit also says the mother said her child had red marks on her neck when she came home and she took pictures of them and requested a meeting with school authorities and the police about the incident.

The mother took the minor to the hospital on Oct. 4 and provided medical records from the visit to police, according to the affidavit.

The officer investigating the incident stated in his affidavit that after reading the medical records “(The minor) had a CT scan and the prognosis was an acute neck muscle strain.”

The officer said in the affidavit that the email was forwarded to VanReeth, and he responded in an email he sent to Marietta High School Assistant Principal Mary Yeater, and the officer added VanReeth’s email to the file the case.

The officer said in the email, Van Reeth said he went to each student to make sure they were completing their assignment and when he got to the minor, he found him asleep, which VanReeth said is common for science and most other classes .

“VanReeth advised that he began to urge (the juvenile) to wake him up so that he could begin to do his daily tasks and not wake up.” the affidavit said. “At that point, VanReeth used his elbow to nudge him and hit (the minor) on the back, and then began to pull on the back of his sweatshirt. After a minute or two of trying to wake up (the minor) finally woke up.”

The affidavit stated that VanReeth said that after numerous conversations with the minor about sleeping in class, he told her that if she did not start her assignment, she would have to work on it for several days during lunch, implying that the minor would spend lunch. detention with VanReeth.

According to the affidavit, VanReeth also said they talked about how the juvenile’s behavior had put him so far behind in classwork and that he needed to put in extra time to make it up.

“VanReeth stated that he spoke to (the juvenile) in a severe manner and believes that the conversation somewhat embarrassed (the juvenile) and upset him.” the affidavit said. “At the end of VanReeth’s email, he states that while he is loud, talks fast, and has a large and intimidating frame, this behavior is uncharacteristic of me, my demeanor, and my teaching style.”

According to the affidavit, VanReeth said in his email that he would be happy to speak with the minor’s parent and offer an apology to the minor if it made him feel unsafe, embarrassed and/or angry.

The officer investigating the complaint said he received a written statement from the juvenile on Oct. 8 and in it the student stated that he was sitting in class with his head down and VanReeth approached him and “took off the hood of his sweatshirt.”

According to the affidavit, the minor stated “His head jerked back, causing pain in his neck” and the minor said that “I felt uncomfortable and unsafe around Mr. VanReeth.”

The officer investigating the incident said in the affidavit that he spoke with VanReeth on Oct. 10 by phone and “VanReeth advised that he was told not to share any information with me, according to his union and his attorney.”

The officer pointed out in the affidavit that the juvenile has no prior record of behavior while in Marietta City Schools.

According to Ohio Department of Education records, VanReeth has no completed or pending disciplinary cases.

The case against VanReeth was filed Oct. 23 in Marietta Municipal Court, according to court records, and an arraignment hearing was set for 9 a.m. Nov. 19.

Requests for comment from VanReeth were not returned at press time.

The school district has not commented on the incident or identified VanReeth as the teacher in connection with the allegations, and a request for VanReeth’s personal records had not been fulfilled by press time, though Woods said the district is working on the request.