Teacher retires after inappropriate text messages

SANDPOINT — A long-time Sandpoint Middle School teacher is retiring after sending inappropriate text messages to a student.

Former life sciences teacher Rod Swerin was granted a leave of absence in August that transitioned into retirement.

Lake Pend Oreille School District Superintendent Shawn Woodward said he was not at liberty to discuss personnel matters, but confirmed Swerin is no longer employed with the district.

“I can tell you he’s not coming back,” Woodward said.

Swerin was a district employee for 17 years.

Swerin faces no criminal charges for the texts. Sandpoint Police conducted an investigation into the allegations in June, a few weeks after the messages were sent, according to a copy of the police report obtained by The Daily Bee.

The text messages Swerin sent describe a dream he had in which the student and another student were present. Swerin said in one text that the message’s recipient was clothed but the other student was not.

“Part of it you were there too but you had some clothes on. You can guess what was in my hand!” another message reads.

In subsequent messages, Swerin notes that the naked student was “proud of his manhood in the dream” and expressed doubt that he could “handle” both of the students.

Swerin, according to the report, was “remorseful and embarrassed” about sending the messages, which he stated were the result of having a few too many drinks while away in Arizona.

“The text messages were highly inappropriate and disturbing to me,” Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall said.

However, Marshall said the context of the messages did not meet the elements necessary to charge Swerin with using a device to entice a child, a felony.

Absent any other evidence against Swerin, criminal charges will not be pursued, Marshall said.

Online searches of court records in Idaho and Washington state, where he used to teach, indicate Swerin has no prior criminal history.

The school district was notified of the complaint against Swerin in late June. Swerin was granted a leave of absence on Aug. 12, according to a school board agenda.

At the same meeting, the school district began finalizing a new policy regulating staff interactions with students on social media networks and messaging platforms.

Woodward said the policy was in development before the inappropriate texts emerged.

“It’s been on the docket, something we wanted to actually pass policy on,” Woodward said.

The texting controversy is an open secret within pockets of the district.

Colleagues have apparently come to Swerin’s defense, contending that he would never do anything untoward with students. Others, however, view Swerin’s conduct as inexcusable and worry if his transgressions were kept under wraps they might continue at another district.

Swerin insists the texts were an isolated incident and the result of joking around that went too far.

“I did something stupid that I shouldn’t have done,” Swerin said.

Swerin said he voluntarily took early retirement to avoid winding up in a position where he was forced to resign.

“I didn’t want, after 30 years of teaching, for it to come to that,” he said.