In July 2021, Shawnee Assistant Athletic Director Ron Arthur was arrested and charged with three counts, including first-degree rape of a minor who was a student in Shawnee schools. While the process took many legal twists and turns, Arthur was eventually convicted of soliciting sex from a minor by use of technology and sentenced to five years in prison.

It is believed the student in that case is not the only one victimized by Arthur during his many years working in Oklahoma schools. And the former Shawnee High School student in that case has filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma against Shawnee Public Schools, alleging school officials were indifferent to reports of Arthur’s abuse of students and therefore allowed abuse to occur.

“The Shawnee School District failed to provide its students an environment free of a sexual predator,” the former student’s complaint states. “While on school grounds, during school hours, after school hours and even after a student’s graduation; a sexual predator repeatedly preyed on students even after Shawnee School District was notified of the sexual predator’s misconduct.”

As part of its response to that lawsuit, the Shawnee school district is now trying to use the courts to force the unmasking of numerous whistleblowers who spoke to a state senator to discuss their concerns about Arthur and the alleged longstanding neglect by Shawnee school officials who reportedly had knowledge of Arthur’s actions going back to 2007.

On May 14, 2024, a subpoena was issued to state Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, on behalf of Shawnee Public Schools demanding that he produce all communications received from or sent to “past and present Shawnee Public School parents, students, teachers, and school employees regarding Ronald Arthur from 2006 until present.”

The subpoena also demanded that Jett provide any communications between himself and any of Arthur’s alleged victims from 2006 until today, as well as copies of any interview notes Jett made during meetings with whistleblowers.

The subpoena also demanded that Jett provide any materials related to Arthur that he shared with the office of the Oklahoma attorney general and the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office.

Jett, who vows to fight the school’s effort to unmask whistleblowers, called the school’s efforts “a political witch hunt” and said the school district’s goal is obvious: to create a “chilling effect” on the willingness of future whistleblowers to alert elected officials of future incidents of suspected child abuse.

“I think they’re hoping that they can prevent others from daring to lift their head and call out a cover-up, that they will be cowed into submission,” Jett said.

Jett has previously said roughly 30 Shawnee parents/school employees/community members contacted him to discuss Arthur’s alleged abuse of students.

He said many of those individuals asked not to be publicly identified due to fear of retaliation.

‘Year After Year After Year’

In April 2022, Jett held a press conference at the Oklahoma state Capitol and urged then-Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor to conduct a multi-county grand jury investigation into the Shawnee Public Schools district following citizen reports of a “systemic pattern” of school officials ignoring and covering up alleged student abuse by Arthur.

Jett noted public reports indicated Arthur abused Shawnee students for 15 years, yet Arthur remained on staff despite school officials having been notified of alleged abuse the entire time.

Arthur was hired at Shawnee in 2004 as a teacher and basketball coach. In 2015, he began serving as the assistant athletic director as well as a basketball coach. In 2020, he resigned as the basketball coach but continued to serve as the assistant athletic director.

In 2007, Shawnee parent Delinda Curtis says she notified the then-Shawnee Public Schools superintendent, athletic director, and at least one school board member that her son reported being sexually groomed and mistreated by Arthur.

The complaint filed in the current lawsuit notes that during the school investigation of that 2007 complaint, Arthur admitted to school officials that he engaged in a “nut” check of the 14-year-old boy—grabbing the youth by the testicles, which is a form of sexual assault.

Rather than fire Arthur, the Shawnee district gave him a Professional Growth Plan. The complaint notes that plan explicitly instructed Arthur that when he interacted with students he should “avoid touching their genitals.”

The federal complaint notes that Shawnee school officials “never reported the sexual assault and sexual harassment” of the 14-year-old youth to police.

Amber Soule, a deputy sheriff and investigator with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office, was among those who spoke at Jett’s April 2022 press conference. Soule said her review of school personnel records showed Shawnee school officials were aware of repeated infractions and that Arthur routinely ignored restrictions imposed by school officials, yet nothing significant was done.

In 2007, she said Arthur was “told not to have meetings with individual players without having an assistant coach, an administrator, an athletic director, present,” but that he repeatedly ignored that directive.

Soule said Arthur was suspended by school officials three times in 2007 and 2008, and that school records included a written explanation from Arthur discussing why he continued to have repeated contact with a reported victim despite school officials ordering him not to do so. By September 19, 2007, she said that student sought to get out of basketball, which Arthur coached.

In 2018, a Title IX investigation was conducted by the school’s athletic director following complaints about Arthur, but it generated no significant findings, Soule said.

In 2020, an assistant superintendent reprimanded Arthur for educational concerns and professional conduct that could lead to termination, Soule said.

Many of those incidents are noted in the federal complaint.

The former Shawnee student’s complaint notes that on March 14, 2018, a member of the Shawnee Public Schools Board of Education, who also had a child attending the district, wrote a letter to Shawnee school officials requesting an investigation of Arthur, expressing concerns about Arthur’s conduct towards male student-athletes.

On April 25, 2018, the complaint notes the district put Arthur on a 10-day paid suspension “for continuing to engage in physical acts with students; continuing to use obscenities and sexual innuendos with students; continuing to be alone with students behind closed doors of his office; and transporting students without parental permission.”

In 2018, the complaint notes that a Shawnee teacher informed a school administrator that Arthur had been alone with a male student in his office in direct violation of Arthur’s reinstatement. School officials took no action in response.

During the 2020-2021 school year, the student filing the lawsuit was a member of the Shawnee high-school varsity wrestling team. After graduation on May 17, 2021, the Shawnee wrestling team continued to attend wrestling practice at Shawnee school facilities in preparation for various wrestling tournaments through July 24, 2021. Within two days of the May 17 graduation, the complaint says Arthur began trying to communicate with the student, demanding a massage. Eventually, the complaint says Arthur picked the youth up from his residence on two occasions, drove him to secluded locations, and engaged in sexual activity. When the former Shawnee student informed his mother, she notified the police.

Following Arthur’s arrest, the complaint notes several former students came forward and gave police similar stories of abuse or concerns about Arthur’s behavior, including alleged rape. Those events reportedly took place in 2006, 2011, 2017/2018, and 2021.

The complaint states that officials in the Shawnee school district “ignored those reports of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and sexual assaults committed by Defendant Arthur—year after year after year—and negligently retained him as an employee of the District.” The district’s “custom and practice,” the complaint states, was “one of inaction or limited action in response to the complaints of sexual harassment, sexual relationships and/or sexual abuse of male students by Arthur.”

As a result, the complaint says that the Shawnee School district “created the danger or increased Plaintiff’s vulnerability to the danger by effectively ignoring numerous allegations of sexual misconduct by Arthur; not immediately removing Arthur from campus after receiving notice of his misconduct; continuing to allow Arthur unfettered and unsupervised access to students in his office and unfettered access to the records and phone numbers of these students; not effectively investigating allegations of misconduct by Arthur; and/or not immediately reporting the allegations of misconduct to law enforcement and/or the students’ parents.”

During the April 2022 press conference, Jett noted Arthur previously taught in the Ponca City, Muskogee, and Stillwater school districts and also worked at a state college where he interacted with high-school students. Based on the profile of Shawnee students who said Arthur abused them, Jett said it was possible there were other victims who would have been as old as 46 at that time.

Jett said his fears were soon confirmed.

“Within a month of that press conference, a victim from Ponca City contacted me out of Texas and said, ‘Ron Arthur molested me for three years,’” Jett said.

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs requested comment from Shawnee Public Schools. As of publication, the district had not responded.

In addition to trying to deter future whistleblowers, Jett believes Shawnee schools’ efforts are also designed to deter other state lawmakers from responding when constituents raise concerns about local schools’ responses to reports of child abuse.

“This is a fishing expedition,” Jett said, “and the point of it is to send a message to any other would-be Shane Jetts advocating for exposing pedophiles in the public school system that we’re going to harass you, so don’t even think about talking to any whistleblowers.”

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