A Franklin County teacher has been charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting a student over the past six years.
Matthew Toof, 39, a teacher at Georgia Elementary and Middle School, was arraigned Thursday in Franklin County Superior criminal court on charges of aggravated sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child.
Toof, a St. Albans resident, pleaded not guilty and was held without bail at the Northwest State Correctional Facility.
According to court documents, the student, identified only with initials, told authorities that Toof sexually assaulted her for the first time in April 2016 when she was 11 years old and Toof was her sixth grade teacher. Toof allegedly continued to sexually assault the student while they were in school and at the student’s home in Georgia, according to documents.
In an affidavit, Detective Sgt. Mark Lauer of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department said Toof is believed to have sexually abused the student within the past two months.
In all, court documents said, the student estimated Toof “put his hands down her pants” about 100 times.
Court documents state that, in June 2016 and November 2016, teachers at the school filed reports with the Department for Children and Families “regarding the relationship and activities” between Toof and the student.
The agency did not accept either report, according to court documents, because the reports did not meet the criteria for sexual abuse.
This is not the first time the Department for Children and Families failed to deal effectively with a child sexual abuse report. In 2011 in Morrisville, the school superintendent called the department about Shaun Bryer, a fifth grade teacher, suspicious about his relationship with young boys. The department refused to investigate, saying the reports did not meet the criteria for sexual abuse. Eventually, Breyer was sent to prison for 12 years and was placed on probation for life for molesting young boys.
In the first report, a teacher said she saw Toof and the student very close together in a public area, according to court documents. Also, another student at the school saw Toof touching the student’s butt, the teacher’s report said.
Another teacher said in the second report that staff members had become concerned about Toof’s behavior with the student, court documents showed. The teacher said she had heard administrators were concerned about Toof’s behavior, too, and staff members were told “to keep an eye” on the student, as she was not supposed to visit Toof.
John Tague, interim superintendent of the Franklin West Supervisory Union, which includes Georgia Elementary and Middle School, said in a statement Friday that Toof began working at the school in 2006.
He said the district is unaware of any other sexual misconduct by Toof or other school employees and will be cooperating with law enforcement going forward.
“Generally, when there is notice to the district of abuse, the district responds immediately,” Tague said. “Where there is notice of behavior that could be abuse, we report it to DCF and the Agency of Education.”
He said employees accused of sexual misconduct are removed from the workplace until investigations are complete, though he declined to comment specifically on Toof’s case.
“Where there is substantiation of abuse, we will always terminate the employee,” Tague said. “We will not tolerate sexual abuse of children by our employees.”
Toof also was a boys basketball coach at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans but was recently fired, according to court documents.
More information about his termination was not immediately available Friday.
