A former substitute teacher at a St. Paul charter school is accused of inappropriately touching a student multiple times, starting last year when she was in fifth grade.
Taylor Walue Vang, 29, of Mounds View, was charged by arrest warrant Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court with fourth-degree misdemeanor criminal sexual conduct for the alleged contact with the Community School of Excellence, where he worked until October.
He was charged via a summons and had yet to be booked into jail. An attorney is not listed in his court filings, and no work number could be found to request comment.
Community School of Excellence began as a charter school in the fall of 2007 and now has more than 1,500 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, most of whom are Hmong. The building is located along Larpenteur Avenue, west of Rice Street. Several school administrators did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations on Tuesday.
According to the complaint, St. Paul police responded to the school on Oct. 10 on a report that an 11-year-old student revealed Vang had made inappropriate comments and touched her inappropriately two days earlier.
Two school administrators said the girl had also reported that Vang had touched her thigh the previous spring, when she was in fifth grade, and that he had already been talked to about hugging young female students.
When confronted by administrators, Vang admitted to hugging and touching students and giving them gifts, but denied talking to them about sex or anything sexual. He was fired on October 9.
During a medical exam at the Midwest Children’s Resource Center, the girl said she met Vang the year before when she was in fifth grade. She said he took her out of class and made her sit on a desk in a third-floor office. He slid his hand down her thighs, opened her legs and tried to touch her. She said she pulled her leg back, kicked his stomach and got off the desk.
In another instance, she said, Vang gave her a CD of her favorite rapper and told her to follow him to his office. Once there, he pushed her against the wall, pulled down his pants and tried to take off his underwear and also her shirt. She said her boyfriend knocked on the door and Vang quickly pulled up his pants.
The girl also said Vang would “slap” her “butt” with his hand, and once put his hand on her “private area” over clothing after pulling her into his office from the hallway.
She said Vang sent her sexual messages via Facebook.
Police obtained data from Vang’s Facebook account. Although no messages were discovered, records showed he went to the girl’s page eight times between February and July.
Related articles
School records show that on June 12, several fourth-grade girls reported feeling uncomfortable with Vang because he touched their waists, the complaint said.
Vang spoke with police and an investigator from the Minnesota Department of Education on Oct. 28. He said he had been employed at the school for a year and a half as a substitute teacher and was fired for tickling female students around the waist, police said. complaint.
Vang said he messaged students on Facebook to help them with their problems. He admitted to tickling students in school hallways and classrooms, saying he was a “sensitive” person and that he made them “lose up” and “tested the kids,” according to the complaint.
He denied the alleged incident in his office and said his Facebook data will make him look guilty because of deleted posts, the complaint said.
