Kansas teacher stalked 4th-grade girl, kept 210 photos and 31 clips of her bending over or lifting her leg
OLATHE, KANSAS: A former school teacher, who allegedly stalked a fourth-grade girl, possessed 210 photos and 31 videos of her. The case of James Loganbill has reportedly pushed the local authorities and the community members to call for changes to state laws. The 58-year-old accused is scheduled to appear in court on August 18 after being charged with first-degree reckless stalking of a minor. Loganbill used to teach at Meadow Lane Elementary School in Olathe, Kansas before he resigned in March.
Investigators working on the case said they discovered at least 210 photos and 31 videos of the minor girl on the accused’s phone and iPad. All the pictures were reportedly taken at the school. Besides, Loganbill is also accused of conducting online searches on the girl’s name 39 times.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said the allegations against Loganbill came to light after some of the girl’s classmates spoke up when they saw him photographing the girl. Many of the pictures of the minor showed her bending over and one video showed her lifting a leg toward her head while wearing black tights, court documents stated. “Kids reported things, and that’s good. They were uncomfortable with certain situations and told grown-ups about this problem. If it wasn’t for the kids telling us something is wrong, we would’ve never known,” Howe said as reported by Fox 4.
Howe also said that though the girl claimed that Loganbill never touched her, she was scared of him. He added that a stalking charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of one year, was not enough to address the allegations. “If you’re taking multiple pictures of kids who are in, wearing clothes for the sexual desires of that individual, we don’t have the laws under the child protection statutes to cover that type of behavior,” Howe said.
He added: “We need to be more consistent about educating our kids about what’s proper behavior and what not. When we empower those kids, many times they are the ones that report this conduct to a trusted adult.”
According to earlier reports, Loganbill was arrested and charged on June 12. The photographs and videos recovered from his phone and iPad were taken between August 1, 2019, and March 10, 2020, authorities said. He was the teacher at Meadow Lane Elementary School for 31 years.
Following his arrest, on June 18, around 200 parents and community members held a protest outside the office of the Olathe Public Schools district. Sara Hart Weir, who was at the rally and knows the girl’s mother for years, said: “Today’s gathering really is about bringing people together to obviously shine a light on the situation that just occurred in the Olathe School District. Today it was about celebrating the courageous peers and classmates of this young girl who spoke up and spoke out.”
She added that their aim is to pass a bill in the Kansas Legislature. Weir said she has started to meet people in leadership positions in the school district, law enforcement agencies and the district attorney’s office to make changes. “I think everyone came out here today because they want to make sure that this never happens to anybody else’s daughter ever again,” Weir, also a Republican candidate in Kansas’ 3rd District Congressional primary, said as reported by The Kansas City Star.