CRESTLINE — Ashley Flinders, the mother of a Crestline student who reportedly received improper messages from his teacher, Cory Forshaw, who was recently charged with sexual battery, asked about the status of a school-led investigation into the messages with her son.
Crestline Interim Superintendent John Miller launched an investigation into the matter but said he has looked everywhere where documents are kept at the schools, and there are no documents or screenshots pertaining to the complaints made by Flinders.
Flinders asked if Miller was saying, that for as far as the school’s investigation goes, it is closed.
Miller responded, “If we find something or something is turned over, I would be more than happy to entertain that and bring it to a board meeting. If something appears, we will deal with it and get it out there.”
Flinders said there should be documentation.
“There was documentation because I had a meeting with the principal. What if this had happened to you guys’ kids?” Flinders asked. “You guys are all here for a job to protect our kids, how are we supposed to feel safe knowing moving forward that if somebody needs to complain, that it’s not going to be taken and there’s not going to be documentation?”
Flinders asked if there was a safety issue and brought up the complaint from three years ago and how nothing was done about it, and how three years later the teacher is being charged with something else that is of sexual nature.
Miller said the two cases are not of the same nature, to which Flinders disagreed saying.
“He tried to take my son on an overnight trip with just the two of them that was out of state and would tell him he loved him,” she claimed.
Flinders said she doesn’t want to argue with anyone, but she wants answers and to know what is going to be done in the future to prevent things like this.
After the meeting, Flinders expressed her displeasure with the board stating she feels as if they aren’t doing enough to help the situation, and that when the investigation was announced on March 1, they continued to let Forshaw teach despite the nature of the investigation, until she made enough of a fuss online and they placed him on administrative leave and even then it wasn’t until toward the end of the school year.
She also claimed she had been told by a board member that Crestline administrators got rid of evidence to cover up the inappropriate messages between her son and the teacher.
Flinders said she hopes that this will all end soon, as she says her life feels like it is a movie rather than reality.