Student talks about sexual relationship with teacher

Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 13, 2007 at midnight

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Tommy Clay says he offered to "take the fall" at first for his teacher when the student’s sexual relationship with Carrie McCandless was reported to her husband, Chris McCandless, the principal of Brighton Charter High School.

But he and his family changed their mind when the charter school board’s president, David Mundy, asked him to leave the school and tried to cover up the incident, Clay, now 18, told Matt Lauer this morning on The Today Show.

"We met that day with Mr. Mundy and he just continued to say, 'We need to take Tommy out, I have to protect a friendship here,' " said Clay’s mother, Sheree Clay. "(Mundy) was good friends with the teacher and her husband. 'I need to save a marriage.' It was things like that. He made Tommy feel very, very guilty."

Mundy, 53, later resigned and was charged with failing to report the incident and tampering with witnesses. His jury trial is set for July 23.

Police allege that Clay and McCandless carried on a romance and "did everything but have sex" during an overnight class field trip to Estes Park last fall.

Carrie McCandless, 30, faces felony charges of sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She hopes to arrive at a plea agreement with Larimer County prosecutors at a disposition hearing scheduled for April 24.

Tommy Clay said he was 17 when his friendship with Carrie McCandless grew romantic during summer school.

The student and teacher agreed "it’s over if it ever comes out," he said. And when his parents found out about it, they didn’t do anything at first, "because Tommy was adamant about protecting the teacher," his mother said.

Clay said his reputation among male classmates skyrocketed at first.

"It was all, you know, high-fives and stuff like that," he said. "A lot of my guy friends were showing a lot more respect, I guess. And as we got further into it, I mean, I lost a lot of the friends that I had at that school."

His case "shows a general lack of awareness that we all have in society," his lawyer, Gary Fielder said. "Because we’re not talking about sexual contact by force or intimidation or threat. But we are talking about an older person in a position of power and responsibility manipulating a child into thinking that this child wants sexual contact."

His mother said the lesson to be taken in her son’s story is that teachers are "in care of our children."

"It’s just wrong that a teacher would do that," she said. "It shouldn’t be acceptable. It doesn’t matter that it’s a boy or a girl."

bargec@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5059

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