Message to OSD families and staff

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Message to OSD families and staff

January 3, 2019

 

Message to Olympia School District families and staff,

We want to update you on some information we shared with you in 2016. We were made aware today that a former Olympia School District bus driver, Jimmy W. Wall, pleaded guilty last week to two counts of third-degree assault of a child.

Wall was arrested on May 6, 2016 and originally charged with multiple counts alleging child molestation of a 10-year-old student who attended Madison Elementary School during the 2007-08 school year. Based on court documentation of the original charges, the alleged incidents of abuse 11 years ago did not occur on a school bus, nor at any time while the student was in the custody and care of the Olympia School District.

Wall was tried in November 2017; the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision and so the trial was concluded as a mistrial. In court documents from 2017 and last week, Wall has always maintained that he was innocent of the original charges. Wall was scheduled to be retried for the original charges this year (2019).

On December 28, 2018, Wall pleaded guilty to lesser charges of two counts of third-degree assault of a child. Thurston County Superior Court documents obtained today do not give specifics about the charges but do indicate they are non-sex offenses. Documents also indicate that Wall was sentenced to eight months in jail and was given credit for previous time served so will serve no additional jail time.

Jimmy Wall was a bus driver for the Olympia School District beginning in the 2004-05 school year, through March 30, 2016, when he left the district to take another job. At the time, there were no allegations against Wall. On April 11, 2016, the district learned that a former Olympia School District student testified in a deposition for civil litigation about the alleged abuse that occurred in the 2007-08 school year. Upon receipt of this information, Olympia School District immediately reported the matter to the Olympia Police Department. Olympia School District has never received any other reports that Wall engaged in any type of abuse of other district students.

Prior to April 11, 2016 the district was aware that the former Madison Elementary student and family alleged that former bus driver Gary Shafer had molested the student, and the district was cooperating with police on this matter. (Gary Shafer has been convicted of multiple crimes against other children and will be in prison for many years.)

 

We want you to know that the safety and security of our students is Olympia School District’s top priority. Olympia School District provides training to its employees, including training on professional boundaries for employees and the need to report suspected child abuse. Olympia School District also adheres to the hiring practices as set forth by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. With student safety being Olympia School District’s top priority, Olympia School District employs numerous additional safeguards to protect the health, safety and welfare of all students.

 

Several years ago, the district also produced a detailed list of the bus routes that Wall and Shafer drove for the vast majority of their careers in Olympia School District. These lists are sorted by year of employment and posted on the school district website.

If you have any questions or concerns about this message, please contact the Communications and Community Relations Department at (360) 596-6103.