Highline school employee accused of sexual misconduct

The State Department of Health has issued an emergency suspension of a health-care provider who is accused of sexual misconduct while working with the Highline Public Schools athletic programs.

Jayson Boehm, 36, had been contracted to provide first aid at athletic events, and helped manage Highline Memorial Field; he also did volunteer work with Evergreen High School sports teams. Before that, he was a bus driver for the district for about a decade.

Boehm was terminated about a month ago, according to district spokeswoman Catherine Carbone Rogers. He could not be reached for comment.

According to the Health Department's statement of charges, which were filed Monday, Boehm conducted physical exams of 26 male adolescent students, asking them to strip and touching their testicles.

In a separate incident, an adult boxer was referred to him during a match to treat his bloody nose. Instead, Boehm asked him to remove his clothes and touched his genitals, according to the Health Department charges.

In addition, Boehm gave students injections and prescribed treatment for various ailments, which he lacked credentials to do, the charges say.

On documentation of his physical exams, he wrote that a doctor had performed them. He charged some students $5 per examination.

Boehm held credentials as an emergency medical technician, massage practitioner, nursing assistant and registered counselor. None of those credentials would allow him to perform the above examinations, said Health Department spokesman Gordon MacCracken.

The King County Sheriff's Office is investigating.

The school district is conducting its own investigation into the matter, Rogers said.

In a news release, the school district said it terminated Boehm for providing health care to students without proper medical supervision. The allegations of inappropriately touching, Rogers said, had not been proved and thus were not mentioned.

When asked about the sexual misconduct allegations, Rogers said, "We don't want to get ourselves into a legal pickle of alleging sex misconduct because ... we could be in a legal wringer about that."

"Our investigation is not yet completed. At this point we don’t have evidence to say his conduct was or was not sexually motivated, but we are continuing to investigate this thoroughly on behalf of our students," she said.

The 26 students who improperly had been given "medical clearance" by Boehm for sports activities will undergo physicals at the district's expense, she noted. Their parents have been notified. The district also is looking to hire an outside investigator to interview the students. In the meantime, the district suspended the athletic directors at the district and at the high school while officials look into their supervision of Boehm.

In a news release, the district said a school nurse alerted her supervisor when she noticed that Boehm, who is not a doctor, had written a medical excuse for a student.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com