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GUTHRIE, Okla. (KFOR) – A Guthrie Junior High School employee is now under investigation after being accused of inappropriate behavior with students.

The alleged suspect is a teacher. KFOR has chosen not to identify him because he hasn’t been charged with a crime. 

A Guthrie Junior High School parent reported the alleged incident last Thursday, according to the Guthrie Police Department. 

“The parent did come in promptly,” said Sgt. Anthony Gibbs with the Guthrie Police Department. “As anybody that has children, when you hear of allegations, what you want is you want to make sure that there’s confidence in your local law enforcement agency that they are following through with this because there are two things that can happen.”

Authorities would not tell KFOR if the parent claims the alleged incident happened once or several times.

Guthrie Public Schools released the following statement to KFOR: 

“On Friday, January 7th, GPS administrators were made aware of an allegation against an employee at Guthrie Junior High School by the Guthrie Police Department. This employee was immediately placed on paid administrative leave which is a standard procedure when matters are under investigation. Guthrie Public Schools continues to cooperate with the Guthrie Police Department as the investigation is ongoing. The school district will have no further comment on the matter at this time.” 

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Guthrie Junior High School

KFOR spoke to one long-time resident who decided not to rush to judgment or express their opinions on the allegations. 

“The judicial system will handle it and I hope they will do whatever they need to do,” said Cheri French. “It could ruin his career completely if it’s completely false or he needs to be locked up because it is true.” 

KFOR asked Sgt. Gibbs if he could say how many students were involved or if charges are expected, Gibbs told us it’s all under investigation.

“When someone brings any allegation toward us and presents it to us as a police department, we must investigate that to the fullest,” said Sgt. Gibbs. “It has got to go all the way through everything that we need to do.”

Again, KFOR has chosen to keep the teacher’s identity concealed because charges haven’t been formally brought against the teacher.

Sgt. Gibbs told KFOR the investigation is in the final phase and he expects to release more details in the following days to come.