Article reposted from St Charles Herald Guide
Author: Anna Thibdeaux
The Paradis resident was arrested March 4 on accusations that he had inappropriate physical contact, and sent inappropriate texts and pictures to a 17-year-old student, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Eusea, 30, made bail at the time, but after an investigation he was arrested for a second time only a day later. Further allegations emerged that he engaged in “sexting” with another student, this one 16 years of age.
After the second arrest, he was booked on three felonies: one count each of computer-aided solicitation of a minor, prohibited sexual conduct between an educator and student and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. Eusea also was booked on two misdemeanors of indecent behavior with a juvenile and pornography involving juveniles with a 16-year-old student during 2010-11.
His arrest represented the fourth St. Charles Parish educator arrested on charges of inappropriate behavior with students within a two year time frame.
Two of those occurred this year. Destrehan teacher Kimberly Naquin was arrested in January and charged with prohibited conduct in both St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.
The sudden rash of these cases spurred Terry Abbott, former chief of staff with the U.S. Department of Education whose public relations firm tracks cases of educators accused or convicted of sexual contact with students, to point to Instagram and Twitter as catalysts for a line of communication between teachers and students more open than ever before.
He also cited school policies on teacher-student communications, such as the one used in the St. Charles Parish system, as not being specific enough to be effective. Earlier this year, the St. Charles Parish School Board made efforts to change that, passing revisions to personnel policies dealing with sexual harassment of students, child abuse and neglect, electronic communication between employees and students and bullying and harassment.
The Board’s stated goal was to ensure the school system’s policy made clear reference to reporting requirements, as well as the revisions clearly, consistently and explicitly define reporting of violations as mandatory. Those policies were brought forth for review less than three weeks after Eusea’s arrest and were officially passed in May.