The Last Temptation of Evan Kroeze

[XLFD]

It is not without irony that the Ludington Area School District (LASD) would Kreuze-fy one of their own teachers rather than give him a modicum of mercy in the same month that we celebrate Easter. 

Evan Kroeze began his teaching career at LASD in the fall of 2019 at the young age of 23.  He had originally graduated from LHS in 2014 with top honors, went to nearby GVSU taking courses in education, and came back to his hometown to seek employment.  

In his first year of teaching, a girl we will call Mary attended one of his classes as a sophomore.  She would go on to graduate in the spring of 2022, but before that she would seek out Mr. Kroeze's help with issues common with students of that age.  She would admit that she spent a lot of time in his classroom seeking help with college applications and looking for advice in dealing with personal and family issues.  Some would say that Mr. Kroeze went above and beyond his duties as a teacher in assisting Mary, some may suggest he had other motives or tried to be a counselor without a license to do so, but it appears that nothing was expected from Mary in return for his advice and counsel while she was a student.  

Mary graduated and became Evan Kroeze's former student.  One week after graduation, on June 5th, 2022, she decided to pay Evan Kroeze a visit at his apartment after she was done with work nearby.  It's not clear how she knew where he lived, but her visit came unexpectedly to him.  As before, Mary sought a friendly ear to talk about her family problems and other issues.  Mary, who was 18 years old and no longer a student at the LASD, had consensual intimate contact with her former teacher that night. 

They mutually agreed to meeting again later that June, where more intimate contact occurred.  Neither Mary or Evan indicated there was any further contact between them, but they remained on good terms.  Somehow, the relationship became known to two other female students in early 2024, and another teacher overheard them talking about it in class on February 16.  Based on the rumor, investigations were conducted by both the LASD and LPD, who supplies an SRO to the school, and Kroeze was placed on non-disciplinary paid leave.  

The narrative about Evan Kroeze and Mary leading this off is a presentation of the results of that investigation, where few of the facts are disputed or unknown by the witnesses and the evidence, which includes a forensic look at Kroeze's phone reviewing text messages and emails.  These would include an exchange made during Mary's junior year in 2021:

If this was the most incriminating email or text between them, one that shows two individuals trying to support each other through the noise of the world, rather than portraying some naive girl being groomed by a lecherous teacher, one may wonder what the problem was.  A former adult student sought out her former unmarried teacher at his home, they talked, mutually recognized that there was an attraction between them unhindered by any rules and mores that formerly applied to them and consented to take it to another level. 

No evidence has been provided that Evan Kroeze has done anything improper with any other student or former student, so if the extent of his passion and temptation was this former student who admittedly showed up without warning at the doorstep of his apartment one night, then what is the crime?  The LPD, notorious for creating crimes to foist on innocent people, could find none. 

As an educator for over twelve years, this reporter can understand this dilemma.  College coeds in the class I taught as a graduate assistant were decidedly friendlier to me than they otherwise would be.  Yet I would only be tested once when I was an associate professor at WSCC.  One student's sister would come to pick her up after class, and one day she made it known she wanted to date me.  I told her that I couldn't as long as I had her sister as a student, but that if she felt the same way after the term was over and grades were assigned, I wouldn't have that excuse. 

A month after the term ended that sister of a student ran into me again, asked me out, and a relationship began that lasted many years.  I saw nothing wrong in the course I took, I see nothing wrong with the course Evan Kroeze took with the given fact set.  At worst, he gave into temptation rather than do what may have been best for Mary by keeping the relationship professional and platonic, as it had been when Mary was a student at the school he taught at.  

However, the school set a lower bar than the LPD (and I) in order to remove Kroeze or force him to resign and they took great pains to reach it on the encouragement of their lawyer, Ray Correll of the Thrun Law firm.  Correll would advise the school throughout to avoid some workable compromise that would allow Kroeze to continue teaching and coaching at his alma mater and recognize that his 'offense' against a former adult student off school grounds is not directly addressed in the school policies.  

The school's investigation is better documented than usual with Principal Forsberg's chronological report (p. 1-4), EK character references (p. 5-6), two student interviews (p. 7,8), relevant emails between Mary and EK (p. 9-12), EK's statements/materials (p. 13-22), Superintendent Corlett's report (p. 23-26), Correspondence with LPD (p. 27-30), prevailing policies and laws (p. 31+).  

The main problem with the conclusions developed to sack Evan Kroeze is that they always refer to Mary as "student 1", when at the time the infractions at issue occurred, she wasn't a student at the LASD.  This confusion permeated into the Mason County Press' article on the resignation, suggesting a teacher was "having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student." 

Superintendent Corlett would not confirm, deny, or correct the allegation that said a student in the district was the victim.  Why would the superintendent want to perpetuate the myth that a teacher and student were engaging in sexual relations, when the evidence shows that such a scandal never happened? 

And what about the emails we've already seen, sent during a time when staff and students were still being forced to wear masks at school by the board, and multiple students went to board meetings worried about their mental health issues from the grand experiment.  Was this seen as showing a caring teacher and a student appreciating his dedication?  Nope:

In modern education, mentoring or counseling a student to help them cope with a sometimes-insane reality is apparently seen as a red flag by corporate school lawyers.  Their advice was to ruin Evan Kroeze's career in education by making sure his personnel file retains a false charge against him.  Superintendent Corlett would end his presentation against Kroeze's continued employment with the following recommendation after trying to pin policy violation on the given record.

Throughout the recommendation, Corlett calls the woman who graduated two years ago as 'student 1' and relies on board policies that primarily rely on there being a student-teacher relationship present, and that would be the case before June 2022, but not when the intimate liaisons took place between consenting adults.   

The policies (found here) are also reprinted in relevant part in the investigation packet.  No LASD policy or the sections of the state's code of educational ethics mentioned reflects conduct outside of the workplace and outside the student-teacher relationship, which didn't exist after May 2022.  Policy 3213(H) is almost applicable to their conduct in school, except that the teacher was not trying to play the part of a counselor in assessing diagnosing, or treating Mary's issues.

Was the fix in for this Kroeze-fixion?  Perhaps, this was a subject that the district would not want to be born again by the return of Evan Kroeze at the high school or the baseball diamond.  Thus, he had to be called "out" even though many in the community would consider him "safe".  It seems to be unduly cruel to burden Kroeze's reputation and personnel file by indicating that he did something sexually inappropriate with a student, when that doesn't appear to be the case when the facts are looked at in this investigation.  This is a cross he will be forced to bear for the rest of his career.

[XLFD]

Read Evan Kroeze's My story, it explains a bit about the due process issues I hint at, and some of what the official narrative does not cover.  You can fault Kroeze's lack of discipline when he succumbed to his temptation at home with a former student, but you need to also fault the district for making so many clear errors in dealing with the allegations.

[Willy]

I don't get it. Was he accused of being to friendly with multiple students or just one? I understand what X has written and what Mr. Kroeze has written but from what I can discern from the information I have no idea what the charges are against Mr. Kroeze. I understand, according to X, that he had sexual relations with one of his former students who was no longer a student at LHS and was 18 or 19 years old when the relationship took place. All of that was consensual. So what else is there to this story that would cause the school to act in such a manner? What is really going on?
One problem I have with all of this is that, according to the information, the only people who knew about their affair were themselves. Did either of them or both of them spread the news of what took place. It sounds like two young people did not use good judgement and did not keep quiet about it. I do have to say that Mr. Kroeze did let his Johnson do the thinking for him and he did not consider the potential consequences. Especially getting involved with a teenager. If he is as innocent as he claims then he must get his reputation back by involving the legal system. That certainly won't be cheap.

[stump]

  It would seem that if there was anything  improper between the student and the teacher during her school year the Ludington police would have a hay day with that and thrown the teacher in the slammer. But a nothing to see here came out of the investigation . Now we have a teacher terminated , loss of reputation  and future in his profession . Sounds to me by reading everything that he was unjustly terminated . I would file a law suit against the school district for unlawful termination even if he didn't have tenure.

[XLFD]

Mr. Kroeze was just a few months short of tenure, this was his fifth year.  Had the old system of rating teachers been employed, he would have likely already had tenure since he had two years of being "highly effective" as a teacher before the new rating system came into play and reduced what used to be highly effective into just "effective".  I think this may have played a part in his treatment as it were.  If I were Evan, I would be strongly considering a lawsuit, but that may be just me.  As Willy has said, Kroeze has had his past looked into forensically through his cell phone, has nearly five years without any other credible or incredible claim against him acting inappropriately with students, so a lawsuit would be the way to go to clear his name and the family's reputation.  And teach and coach again, if he still feels like doing so.