SEQUIM — On Nov. 17, Dave Trapp allegedly scratched a male student’s stomach during a classroom “skirmish” over a soft drink bottle.
Two days later, the longtime Sequim High School teacher was accused of shoving another male student against a classroom wall for defying his order to properly place a wall poster.
That’s the story supported by Sequim School District administrators, who fired Trapp on Dec. 16 from the school at which he had taught since 1965 for the two incidents — which they say is part of a pattern of abusive and violent behavior by Trapp toward his students dating back to 1987.
Documents pertaining to the district’s investigation of Trapp were released Tuesday.
“Mr. Trapp has four formal disciplinary violations in his personnel file from three separate administrators,” Sequim High principal Shawn Langston and assistant principal Mark Willis wrote in a Dec. 8 report recommending Trapp’s firing.
“He has exhibited a history of unprofessional conduct toward students, and these two incidents show a continued pattern of such behavior.”
Appealing dismissal
But the 61-year-old Trapp, who denied the allegations and is appealing his dismissal, believes he did nothing wrong.
“I have a hard time seeing that I was anything but professional throughout the whole thing in either case,” Trapp said in a Tuesday night telephone interview with the PDN.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, so I suspect it doesn’t make a lot of sense to the community as well.”
District administrators say that in both cases, student statements taken separately contradict Trapp’s recollections of both incidents.