Questions linger after middle school principal's arrest
Jan. 29—If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault's 24/7 hotline at 800-871-7741.
The Mount View Middle School principal arrested and charged Tuesday with sexually touching a minor did not come to work at all this week, according to Regional School Unit 3 Superintendent Charles Brown.
David Holinger, 41, of Belgrade is prohibited from having unsupervised contact with girls under the age of 16, according to the conditions of his bail.
Even so, school district officials did not learn about Holinger's arrest in Kennebec County until a Bangor Daily News reporter called them on Thursday morning. And that raises questions about how information like this should be disseminated.
"It happened in a different jurisdiction, Kennebec County, and we work in Waldo County.
I don't know who's responsible for communicating it between jurisdictions, honestly," Waldo County Sheriff's Office Deputy Jordan Tozier, the school resource officer at RSU 3, said Friday. "If we had something like this happen again, we could communicate it better. It's not like it happens a lot. It's probably a first for a lot of people involved in this."
In general, the defendant has the responsibility to follow bail conditions set for them, and the prosecutor's office is responsible for sharing those conditions with the victim and their parents or guardians. But it's not clear who, if anyone, is mandated to share information about bail conditions with the school district in a case like this.
Brown said that the question of communication is a concern, but not the first concern, of the school district.
"We're working with our sheriff's department and the Department of Health and Human Services to deal with the immediacy. Then we'll deal with how districts should be informed," the superintendent said Friday.
The victim is not a Mount View Middle School student, according to information detailed in the affidavit filed at court in Kennebec County. The abuse happened in a home when Holinger was intoxicated, the victim told a forensic interviewer in December.
Holinger has been placed on administrative leave from the school pending the results of Regional School Unit 3's investigation into the allegations. He posted $1,000 cash bail after being arrested and is scheduled to make his first appearance at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 18, at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. He is charged with Class D misdemeanor crimes, each of which carries a penalty of up to 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Brown said that the district right now is concentrating on getting through the immediate crisis by supporting students, staff, parents and the school community.
"Understandably, this is hard for our community," he said.
Tozier said that he and other school officials have been busy responding to "a lot" of concerned citizens.
"They're wondering how do we get morale back in the school, that sort of thing," Tozier said. "And at the end of the day, the incident he was arrested for was not connected to Mount View. We're trying to deal with the fallout from it, trying to support our kids and our faculty. "
