The New Hanover County school system has faced an uphill battle when it comes to sexual offense cases between students and school staff members.
In 2019, Michael Earl Kelly pleaded guilty to 59 charges of child sexual abuse after he d abused nearly 20 victims during his years as a science teacher at Isaac Bear Early College High School.
Last year, the New Hanover County Board of Education fired Roland-Grise Middle School band director Peter Michael Frank after he was charged with 12 felony sex crimes. He was later indicted on an additional 17 sex crime charges that included sex offenses with a child aged 13-15 between 1998 and 2000.
An assistant principal at Noble Middle School was found dead Friday morning after allegations that he had an inappropriate relationship with a student.
Officers with the Wilmington Police Department responded to a 911 call around 9:05 a.m. Friday to 3304 Tipton Court. There they found the body of David Eugene Bostian, 59, according to Jessica Williams, the department s public affairs officer. Bostian was arrested earlier on Friday by the New Hanover County Sheriff s Office.
Police are at the scene and the investigation into Bostian s death is ongoing, Williams said. The cause of death has not been released.
A former student reported earlier this week that she had an ongoing relationship with Bostian in 1992 while she was a student at New Hanover High School and he was a teacher at the school, according to Lt. Jerry Brewer, the public information officer for the New Hanover County Sheriff s Office. The student was 16 at the time of the relationship.
history with sex crimes against students, the most recent drafts have no mention of sexual assault.
It’s not clear who pulled the questions. However, it is clear the debate over whether or not to include the question of if a student has experienced sexual assault presents a legal liability to the district, hence why it has been hesitant to invite such disclosures through the survey.
Now, the district is going back to the drawing board on the recently debated survey.
Revisiting the survey
About a year ago, the school system was working to create a Title IX survey to send out to middle and high schoolers. However, that effort was largely abandoned when the pandemic hit and took students out of classrooms.
On Jan. 24, Roland-Grise Middle School band teacher Peter Michael Frank became the third New Hanover County Schools employee to be arrested on charges of sexual misconduct involving a student since 2018.
Frank, 47, has since been charged with nearly 30 felony counts for crimes that allegedly took place between 1999 and 2019.
The search warrant issued three days after Frank’s arrest allowed law enforcement to obtain his personnel file, which revealed he had been repeatedly counseled by New Hanover County Schools for “inappropriate relationships” with students.
It further stated that Frank allegedly told law enforcement he was attracted to middle-school-aged girls. Searches of his phone and computers allegedly turned up photos of the “clothed-backsides of female students.”