7-year-old girl says that PE teacher touched her “private area.”

On December 18th 2017, Independent Press Journal (IPJ) broke the story about a PE Teacher at Daphne Elementary (Alabama) who allegedly had inappropriate sexual contact with a 7-year old female student.

Shortly after the IPJ article was published, Daphne PD announced that they had interviewed the parent as well as the child. Prosecutor Matt Simpson at the DA’s office referred to the allegations as “creepy,” but said that there haven’t been any laws broken.

According to the mother of the 2nd grader, the PE Teacher – William Joseph Davis – who goes by “Billy Davis” or “Coach Davis” had been progressively fostering a relationship with her daughter since kindergarten.

Davis’ close relationship with her daughter became evident in September 2017, when she noticed that her daughter came home with a lot of “Shopkins” (toys) and candy – given to her by Coach Davis.

In early October, the mother noticed that Davis began secretly attending her daughter’s soccer practices and games. “We noticed him parked in the back parking lot, sitting in his truck with his window rolled down, just watching her,” she said.

On or around October 20th, Davis was suspended from Daphne Elementary. The official reason for his suspension given by Baldwin County Schools was that Davis had given kids too much candy – a claim that not all parents (or students) seem to believe.

Some kids reported to their parents that Davis had been suspended for “looking up girls’ skirts in the gym,” while other students said it was because he was specifically “giving girls too much candy.”

On October 30th, the 7-year old girl mentioned to her mother that Davis was not at school anymore. “I guess we won’t be able to pass notes to each other anymore,” the girl said to her mom about Coach Davis.

At that point, the mother became aware that her daughter was passing notes with – and keeping secrets related to – Coach Davis.

The girl told her mother that she and Davis had spent significant alone time together while at school. When asked how the girl would manage to be alone with Davis, her daughter responded, “I would tell my teacher that I had to see the Coach so that I could get out of class.” The girl explained that she would leave her backpack in the gym so that Davis could leave her gifts and notes in her backpack.

According to the mother, her daughter would meet Davis at the edge of the playground near his truck (he often parked towards the back parking lot near the car-line), where he would give her toys, and where they would sometimes walk around the playground holding hands.

The mother found that there were other secrets that her daughter was keeping related to the Coach. She explained, “Davis has been giving her candy and showering her with gifts. He tells her things like ‘I love you’ and also kisses her. He even convinced my daughter that he was her boyfriend and that she was his girlfriend.”

On October 31st, the mother contacted Jonathan Ellis – Principal of Daphne Elementary – to complain about the information she had learned related to Coach Davis and her daughter’s relationship. The mother explained the details to the Principal, and was told that the school would talk to her daughter the following day.

The next day, on November 1st, her daughter was interviewed by the school counselor, Beth Childs, as well as Jennifer Sinclair, Director of Human Resources for Baldwin County Schools.

According to Sinclair’s statement to Daphne PD, the student told the counselor that Davis said things like “I love you” and that she was “his girl.”

Later that evening at the dinner table, her daughter told the family: “I was pulled out of class today, they said they are going to try really hard to bring back Coach Davis.”

Shocked about the school’s approach towards her daughter, especially in-light of the inappropriate behavior Coach Davis had displayed, the mother lost faith in the school system’s ability to investigate the matter.

The mother later discovered that Davis had also taken photos of her daughter, which – according to the girl – Davis used as the background on his phone. The girl also mentioned that Davis became upset at her once when she didn’t give him a hug, and that Davis would draw her pictures and leave her notes, some of which she had in her desk at school.

The following day, on November 2nd, the mother says she contacted Sinclair and Ellis and told them not to communicate with her daughter any more. She was upset that her daughter had been told that the school was trying to bring Davis back when they were supposed to be interviewing her daughter about Davis’ inappropriate contact with her.

The mother went into school and asked to see the contents of her daughter’s desk, which the Principal assured her that he would retrieve and show her. The Principal came back with a single letter that was written from Davis to her daughter. The letter contained a drawing of flowers, and said “Love Coach Davis’ class.”

When the mother asked her daughter about the note, her daughter said that Davis had to put the words “Coach Davis’ class” on the notes so that he wouldn’t get in trouble for passing the note to her. When asked if Davis gave these notes to anyone else, the girl said, “no, only me.”

On November 3rd, the mother filed the police report with Daphne PD, initiating the investigation into child sex abuse.

On November 13th, a forensic interview was scheduled with “Care House” (Baldwin County Child Advocacy Center) to conduct a forensic interview with her daughter.

The mother reports that during the forensic interview, the daughter was taken into a private room with a counselor.

A representative of the DA’s office, as well as Officer Vannoy from Daphne PD both went into an adjacent room where they could monitor the forensic interview as it was being conducted.

The mother was not present in the room during her daughter’s interview, nor could she see or hear what was happening in the interview room. The mother was not provided a record of the contents of the interview, which she describes as having lasted only 20-minutes. After the interview concluded, the representative from the DA’s office stated that the girl did not disclose any information.

The mother told IPJ, “I thought it would be a real interview, like, an ongoing interview process and that they would try get to the bottom of what happened. Instead, it seemed like they didn’t care to spend more than a few minutes on her. I didn’t realize that everything would be based off a 20-minute, one-time interview. It seems like they weren’t interested in getting information. There was no follow-up. Nothing.”

Unsatisfied with the investigation at Daphne PD, and the complacency by the DA’s office, and determined to protect her child, the mother decided to try to get to the bottom of it herself.

Over the holiday break, the mother got a chance to sit down with her daughter and talk about school. When the conversation turned towards the topic of Coach Davis, the mother had the foresight to record it.

In a recorded audio clip that was delivered to Daphne Police Department earlier today, the 7-year old girl states that on at least one occasion, she was in Davis’ office alone and that Davis touched her in her private-area (vagina) with his fingers, in what she described as “rubbing.”

The girl says that he rubbed her with his finger on the outside, but not on the inside of her vagina.

The child differentiated between the inside and the outside of her vagina multiple times, and when asked where he touched her, the girl stated, “the outside of my private area.”

When asked to demonstrate what Davis did to her, the girl used a prop to represent her vagina, and another prop to represent Davis’ hand. The girl then stated, “he [Davis] did this to my private area. He didn’t do the inside, just the outside.” She described the touching as “rubbing” and said that Davis used his hand.

The mother suspects that the abuse may have been going on for months. “Beginning in the last school year, when I would give [my daughter] a bath, she would begin acting weird when I would try to help her wash her private areas. I mean, not just shy or whatever, but scared. She would clamp-up her legs real tight and start screaming at the top of her lungs.”

When the girl was asked when Davis began touching her in her private area, the girl told her mother than it only happened once, “in the office.”

When asked if anyone saw it, the girl replied, “I don’t know who saw it, I wasn’t paying attention.”

When asked, “where were you when he was touching you?” the girl replied, “in his office.”

So far, at least 4 students at Daphne Elementary reported to their parents that a special relationship exists between Davis and this female student.

According to students and parents, kids are not allowed inside the coaches office alone. However, at least one witness claims to have seen the girl inside Davis’ office alone on that day. The witness is a student at the school who’s identity is being withheld for privacy concerns.

The witness reports to have forgotten a jacket in the gym and when the student entered the gym to retrieve the jacket, the student saw Davis close his office door. The witness claims to have heard and seen the girl inside the coaches office. In one account, the witness said, “the door was closed, but it was cracked.” The witness – also a 7-year old child – shied away from giving any details about what might have been seen inside the office that day, but described in detail what was heard.

In all accounts, the witness reports hearing moaning noises coming out of the office. The witness was able to clearly describe the events (and the moaning noises) on two separate occasions to two different people. Daphne PD was notified about this witness approximately 2-weeks ago.

The mother of the girl also noted that her daughter came home in different clothes on the day of the office incident. “At the time, I had no idea that Davis was touching her in the office. That all came out later. But, I remember thinking at the time that it was weird that she came home that day in different clothes. Nobody from the school called me to tell me that anything happened. When I asked her, [my daughter] told me that her skirt got wet going down a slide, and that she had to change her clothes at the nurses office.”

According to the 7-year old girl, the clothes changing incident occurred on the same day that Davis touched her private areas in the office.

The mother was upset that she was not given an explanation by the school as to why her daughter had changed clothes, nor was she given her daughter’s clothes back. “Why didn’t they let me know if she had to change her clothes, and isn’t it interesting that it happened to be on the same day that she says Davis touched her in her private areas while they were alone in the office.”

The mother expressed anger towards the school for not having notified her on the day of the incident. She believes that evidence may have been lost.

The mother has expressed deep distrust for the Principal, Jonathan Ellis, as well as the HR Director, Jennifer Sinclair. “I think they knew something was going on, and they hid it. There’s no way that this kind of thing can go on and nobody in the administration knows about it. I mean, my god, the kids even knew about it. People have told me that it’s been going on for years, and that every time someone has complained in the past, it gets brushed under the rug by Sinclair, and the teachers are ordered not to talk about it.”

The mother’s concerns are not entirely misplaced. IPJ has spoken to teachers and employees within Baldwin County Schools who say that they are consistently told not to talk about issues, and threatened that they may lose their jobs if they do.

One employee described Sinclair as “intimidating teachers to be quiet otherwise she will fire them.” Another teacher said, “I need my job, and they make it pretty clear that if you say anything when they tell you not to, then they’ll fire you.” The employees uniformly point to Jennifer Sinclair as the primary enforcer of the “don’t talk” policy. IPJ has also learned that Terry Wilhite (Director of Communications for Baldwin County Schools) has also issued such instructions to teachers telling them not to talk to the media.

Jonathan Ellis, Principal at Daphne Elementary, Terry Wilhite, Spokesman for Baldwin County Schools, Eddie Tyler, Superintendent, and Jennifer Sinclair, HR Director were all asked to comment. None responded.

It appears that after the initial allegations of sexual abuse were made, Baldwin County Schools went on with business as usual.

No mention was made of Coach Davis or Daphne Elementary at any November board meeting.

On December 5th the mother of the girl took her complaint directly to the school board. At that meeting, the Superintendent made no mention of a recommendation to terminate Davis.

The mother noted that it wasn’t until after IPJ’s article on December 18th that the rest of the local media and the school board began taking her allegations seriously.

Two days after IPJ’s report, Tyler issued a statement saying that he had recommended Davis’ termination way back on November 9th. One resident pointed out that “if that is the case though, then why haven’t they addressed it yet? It’s 2018 already.”

Meanwhile, Baldwin County School Board (BCBE) has just announced an unscheduled school board meeting for this Thursday (January 4th) to fill a vacancy on the board – a vacancy that was just announced in December.

A parent of a student at Daphne Elementary said: “So, they manage to get around to immediately addressing personnel issues when it relates to replacing a board member, but when it comes to issues related to child sexual abuse, then that can just wait?”

When notified about the special board meeting on Thursday, the mother of the girl responded: “If they cared about the safety of students, then they would have had a special board meeting back in November and addressed the issues of child sex abuse. If Tyler or Sinclair cared as much as they claimed, then the board would have addressed this weeks ago.”

After handing the audio recordings of her daughter’s testimony to Officer Vannoy at Daphne Police Department, the mother told IPJ that “it’s sickening to hear my daughter describe what this guy did to her. I gave Daphne PD the recording. We’ll see what they do with the evidence. No matter what happens at this point though, I will never trust Baldwin County Schools ever again.”