School Staff Face Indictments in Ohio, Virginia

A Cincinnati assistant principal, Steven Barton, faces new charges of sexual battery and grooming involving four additional students, on top of charges in a separate case involving a 16-year-old. Prosecutors allege he used his school position to access students, remove them from class, take them to private locations and shopping, drive them, and send them money; the alleged additional victims were ages 15 and 17. In Albemarle County, Virginia, former school social-emotional learning coach Michael Swiney faces nine additional aggravated sexual battery charges after three more children reported alleged abuse, bringing the number of alleged victims to seven; he remains jailed without bond. Separately, three current or former Albemarle County school administrators were indicted for allegedly failing to comply with Virginia’s mandatory child-abuse reporting law, amid investigators’ findings that some staff feared disciplinary consequences for reporting suspected abuse.