News

Gym Teacher Caught Allegedly Abusing 28 First-Grade Girls in Plain Sight

NewsPublished Jun 24, 2019
By Kaitlin Stanford
John Austin Hopkins stands in a prison jumpsuit, awaiting the grand jury's indictment.WVPO/YouTube

A father in Springboro, Ohio, asked his first-grade daughter a simple question in late March: "How was your day?" But the response he got back left him with a pit in his stomach. It was a great day, the little girl reportedly told him -- because it was finally her turn to sit on Mr. Hopkins' lap. That one sentence would trigger an investigation that eventually uncovered what police say was months of inappropriate conduct on the part of John Austin Hopkins, 25, a gym teacher at Clearcreek Elementary School.

According to People, the concerned dad brought the story to the school principal on March 8, which led administrators to review security footage.

With a security camera positioned in full view of the school gymnasium, they figured they could easily prove (or disprove) whether something indecent had gone on. 

To their shock, the footage revealed much more than they anticipated. Not only was Hopkins allegedly seen with the little girl on his lap, but he was also seen putting his hands up the skirts and shirts of other first-grade girls.

“It was apparent within the first day worth of video that this was going to be bigger than, frankly, anything we’ve ever handled,” Warren County Prosecutor David P. Fornshell said during a press conference Monday.

So they kept rewinding -- further and further back, through December 2018. What they saw in those few months was nothing short of alarming.

“Within minutes, John Austin Hopkins was removed from the classroom and we turned it over to the Springboro Police Department,” Scott Marshall, a communications coordinator for the school, told People this week. Hopkins was placed on leave right away but resigned from the school a few days later before turning himself in to police.

“It was all out in the open," Marshall added about the alleged abuse. "None of the footage showed him being one-on-one with students. It was all out in the open.”

All told, the grand jury was presented with roughly 100 incidents of inappropriate touching involving 88 different first-grade girls. This week, the jury indicted Hopkins on 36 counts of gross sexual imposition against 28 different girls. If convicted, Hopkins faces anywhere from one to five years in prison.

"It's shocking. It's gut-wrenching," Marshall said in regard to the scope of the alleged abuse and what Hopkins is accused of.

But most of all, the fact that the victims had no idea they were even being abused makes this story all the more heartbreaking -- and disturbing.

Fornshell told reporters that Hopkins was popular and well-liked, and that the girls "competed" for his attention in class.

“Frankly, they loved him as a teacher because of the amount of affection he was showing them," he told reporters. “What these kids didn’t realize is this was completely inappropriate and criminal. One of the little girls -- he had convinced her they were going to be married when she got older.

“All of the little girls in the class knew this type of conduct was going on,” Fornshell continued. “The kids didn’t recognize anything at all going wrong. But when you’re watching it as an adult your stomach starts rolling. Because you’re like, ‘This is not okay at all.’“

Hopkins posted $500,000 bail on Friday and was allowed to be released while he awaits trial.

He's required to stay at his family's home until then, and he will be wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet so authorities can keep track of his whereabouts, according to WHIO.

In the meantime, his lawyer, David Anthony Chicarelli, insists that "nothing was done inappropriately" and added that both Hopkins and his family are "devastated by this."

Hopkins' family includes his mother, Lisa Hopkins, who reportedly teaches fifth grade at another local elementary school, and "unequivocally" backs her son. His father, the late James Dalton, was a former principal.

As a lawyer for the families said to reporters this week, however, the real victims are the children and their families. 

“This was a difficult day for everybody,” said Angela Wallace, a lawyer representing the families. “This has been a long process for the families.”

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