Crime & Safety

Update: Ex-Teacher Charged With Rape Taught at Kirkwood High for 2 Years

The teacher charged with the rape of at least two former students was employed by one school district that serves Sunset Hills students.

A former St. Louis County high school teacher suspected of raping a student in the mid-1970s taught at from 1985 to 1987, according to a statement by Ginger Fletcher, spokesperson for the . The district serves some Sunset Hills students, according to the Sunset Hills city website.

Fletcher said Donald Ingerson, who was recently charged with one count of rape and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy, resigned from the school district, although did not immediately elavorate on the circumstances surrounding his resignation.

Fletcher asked on the Kirkwood School District's Facebook page that anyone who thinks they were a victim of Ingerson call police at (314)-889-2341.

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According to comments on the Kirkwood School District's Facebook page, Ingerson taught science and was a wrestling coach at the school. Kirkwood Patch will work to confirm this information. 

 

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Our previous story:

Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCullough said Tuesday that Ingerson approached police because he thought he could not be charged in the case.

Donald Ingerson, 67, is charged with one count of rape and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy.

He taught at five or six school districts in St. Louis County beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the 1990s, McCullough said Tuesday during a news conference at the  in Clayton. McCullough declined to identify the districts, though he said districts where the suspect worked have been notified and asked to contact police should additional victims come forward.

Patch editors have confirmed the names of the several school districts in St. Louis where Ingerson taught:

  • University City Patch from 1976 to 1981.
  • Florissant Patch confirmed that . 
  • Rockwood School District Chief Communications Officer Kim Cranston  that Ingerson was employed as a science teacher at  in  from 1969-1971. During that time he also served as an assistant coach for football, wrestling, baseball, track and field.
  • A KSDK-TV Tweet Tuesday afternoon indicated Ingerson was a former teacher and coach at Ritenour and McCluer schools.

Two victims, both students at the time of the incidents, have been identified so far, though McCullough said his work in similar cases leads him to think there are others. 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.

McCullough said he thinks the encounters happened at different locations outside of school grounds.

In early June, Ingerson called the  to say he had something to discuss, McCullough said. He spoke with investigators.

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. People who think they might have been victims of a sexual crime are asked to call St. Louis County detectives at 314-880-2341.

Patch editors , and contributed to this story.


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