St. Paul’s School in Concord is apologizing for misleading another prep school about a former faculty member during a reference check in 2009. The teacher had been fired from St. Paul's six months prior for violating rules governing boundaries between students and faculty.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office on Wednesday charged former St. Paul’s teacher David O. Pook with witness tampering and conspiracy to commit perjury. The charges come as the AG investigates the school’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations over many years.
Court documents show that Pook was fired in 2008 amid growing concerns at St. Paul’s about inappropriate conduct he had with students.
But, according to the documents, when Pook applied to work at The Derryfield prep school in Manchester the next year, St. Paul’s officials didn’t say why he had been let go. Instead, they said Pook was “as good a teacher as we have had here in ten years.”
Pook taught at Derryfield from 2009 until today, when school officials there said they had suspended him in light of the charges filed against him.
An earlier version of the story follows here:
New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald has announced the arrest of a former teacher at St. Paul’s School on charges of witness tampering and conspiracy to commit perjury.
In a statement, the AG says David O. Pook of Warner was arrested in connection with the department’s investigation into the school’s handling of allegations of sexual misconduct.
According to the statement, Pook taught at St. Paul’s for eight years before leaving under what the AG described as "questionable circumstances" in 2008. He currently teaches at the Derryfield School in Manchester.
The statement says the investigation focused on a relationship between Pook and a female student at St. Paul’s while he was teaching there. Pook and the student were called before a grand jury to testify.
The name of the student is being withheld. A call Wednesday morning to a listed phone number for Pook indicated it was out of service.
Pook is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges on March 15.
The AG launched the investigation last July in response to a 2017 report containing allegations of sexual misconduct by teachers at the prestigious school, as well as previous information about former student Owen Labrie, who was convicted during a sexual assault trial for having sex with a 15 year old.
(This is a developing story and will be updated Wednesday.)
