Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Don Ingerson Photo Found in Affton School Yearbook

The teacher charged with raping students in the St. Louis area may have taught in the Affton School District.

Donald Ingerson—the former St. Louis-area —appears in an Affton School District yearbook from 1975, according to the latest report from Affton-Shrewsbury Patch.

Portions of Crestwood are located within the district, according to the city’s website. Patch has already confirmed his employment within the Kirkwood School District, which includes some Sunset Hills students. Affton-Shrewsbury Patch verified yesterday that Ingerson was never employed with the Lindbergh School District, which serves the majority of Crestwood and Sunset Hills’ students.

In 1975, the W. F. Gaunt School was a ninth-grade center for district students. The school was located at 8520 Mackenzie Rd., where the Village at Mackenzie Place is now.

Find out what's happening in Sunset Hills-Crestwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Affton-Shrewsbury Patch received a copy of the yearbook page from Anne Badalamenti, who attended Gaunt at that time.

"We were all like, 'Oh, ya, we remember that guy,'" Badalamenti said. She and her friends were discussing Ingerson's arrest on Facebook, where she says several of her friends remember Ingerson as a long haired man who was rumored to have had "affairs" with students.

Find out what's happening in Sunset Hills-Crestwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Affton School District has not yet confirmed Ingerson's employment. The human resources department is searching through microfiche records from those years, according to the school district. Superintendent Steve Brotherton said he had heard from a former employee of the district who recognized Ingerson from working at Affton schools.

Ingerson is listed in the 1975 yearbook as being the physical science teacher. Badalamenti and her friends say the remember him coaching the freshman football and wrestling teams.

Ingerson, 67, is charged with one count of rape and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy. He taught in St. Louis County beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the 1990s.

Two victims, both students at the time of the incidents, have been identified so far, though Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCullough said his work in similar cases leads him to think there are others. Both victims are female. Ingerson is suspected of having had multiple sexual encounters with both, McCullough said, the first between September 1974 and January 1976, and the second between Jan. 1, 1995 and Nov. 17, 1996.

Ingerson, who lives in Ely, MN, near the Canadian border, arrived in St. Louis on Sunday and repeated statements about the sexual encounters to police on Monday, McCullough said. At that time, McCullough said, Ingerson was arrested.

Ingerson did not appear to realize that the statute of limitations had not expired, McCullough said.

Both victims have been contacted and have been cooperative. Police previously had not heard of either the victims or Ingerson, McCullough said. 

McCullough said Ingerson moved to Minnesota sometime after he retired from teaching.

He is being held in the St. Louis County Jail on a $300,000 cash-only bond.

 

Related articles:



Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Sunset Hills-Crestwood