Former Nicolet teacher accused of sexual abuse found dead in his garage

Two days after news broke about a former Nicolet High School teacher accused of sexually abusing at least two students decades ago, he was found dead in the garage of his Waupaca home Wednesday.

The Waupaca Police Department said it was called at 12:29 p.m. to the Park Vista Retirement Living complex about a man, identified as 81-year-old David R. Johnson, who had hanged himself in his attached garage.

Officers arrived on the scene and confirmed the hanging. The death remains under investigation, although police do not suspect foul play.

Earlier this week, Nicolet High released the results of an internal investigation on Johnson, who taught at the school for more than 30 years.

The school hired an attorney to conduct the investigation after a man who was a student at Nicolet in the early 1980s informed current Superintendent Robert Kobylski and School Board President Libby Gutterman of the alleged abuse.

The investigation concluded that Johnson sexually abused the student, as well as at least one other student.

In a letter Monday to Nicolet alumni, school officials implied administrators at the time did little about Johnson. The letter stated there was evidence the district was made aware of Johnson's misconduct during the summer of 1983 but allowed him to continue teaching with supervision.

RELATED: Nicolet High School informs former students of sexual abuse by teacher

Johnson taught mathematics at the school from 1958 to 1991 and also supervised two student organizations, Kobylski and Gutterman said in the letter.

After the former student came forward, the school contacted the Glendale Police Department but was told the alleged abuse was beyond the statute of limitations for prosecution.

Concerning tendencies

Before news of Johnson's death broke, a former student at Nicolet High School during the time he was teaching there, said he preferred having boys over girls in his honors math classes.

Linda Perlstein, a 1988 graduate of the school, said there were no more than four girls in Johnson's honors math classes.

Johnson, also the adviser for the school's magic club, only allowed boys to be the magicians and the magicians' assistants, Perlstein said.

"After I was out of high school and realized I was much better at math than Mr. Johnson indicated to me that I was, I thought the fact that he had so few girls in his class was reflected as sexist attitude about girls' mathematical capabilities," Perlstein said. "Now, in light of what we've learned about his record of sexual abuse, I see this in a different light. I see it as an attempt to create a better pool from which to choose his male victims."

Johnson's decisions had an impact

Perlstein said that along with the effects of Johnson's sexual abuse on his victims, Johnson's actions also affected the girls who were in his classes.

"The effect of sexual abuse on victims is profound, and he's obviously hurt individuals for life, but there's another sort of damage he did, which is diminishing the potential of many years of Nicolet girls who could have been excelling at math if they had been given the opportunity," Perlstein said.

Perlstein said she knew this was an issue related to Johnson because of a conversation she had while she was a reporter at the Washington Post.

She was working on a story about math education at the time and had called a math teacher at Nicolet High School for context in writing the story.

"We got to talking about the department and I asked if there were still only three or four girls in all the high-level math classes," Perlstein said. "He said as soon as Mr. Johnson had retired as department chair, as soon as he retired, the honors math classes at Nicolet became 50 percent female."

Another former student who had Johnson as a teacher saw a different side.

Jim Dummert, a 1962 graduate, said Johnson was an extremely popular person. Dummert said he was a part of the school's swing band, which Johnson conducted.

Dummert said he and his brother, a 1964 graduate who was in Johnson's math class, never saw an inkling of problems with Johnson. He also said he didn't approve of the things that were claimed Johnson had done and that it shouldn't be swept under the rug.

Teacher, principals shut down

Perlstein said that while in school she had heard rumors Johnson would invite boys over to his house. In the district's investigation, which took place for more than a year from 2016 to 2017, the victim revealed Johnson picked him up on weekends and drove him to a classroom at Nicolet High School, where the assaults took place.

The Milwaukee-based law firm von Briesen & Roper conducted the investigation.

The former student said in his interview with the investigator in February 2017 Johnson would close the curtains in a classroom and told him to change into gym clothes. The victim said Johnson would instruct him to do exercises that would result in physical contact between his exposed legs and Johnson's clothed genital area. The victim said this occurred every four to six weeks five to 10 times during his junior year.

During those investigations, Johnson admitted he met the student on weekends and the student performed these exercises, but denied ever having sexual contact with him.

One teacher said that while teaching a summer school typing class at Nicolet in the early 1980s, a student told her Johnson had initiated sexually inappropriate contact with him at his residence, the investigation revealed. The teacher told the investigator last year she called Glendale police at the time to report the incident. She did not hear back from the department, which told her it would look into it.

The district said in its release this week the Glendale Police Department was unable to locate any records relating to a report made to the police department at the time, any investigation the police department may have conducted or any information or recommendations shared by the police department with the district.

But the teacher did hear from the district's administrator at the time, James O. Reiels. She told the investigator Reiels called her into his office and instructed her not to discuss the incident further, according to the investigation's findings.

A School Board member at the time later told the teacher the situation involving Johnson was being addressed, she told the investigator during her interview in 2017.

Keep 'strict eye' on Johnson

Moreover, a former Nicolet assistant principal told the district's investigator last year that Reiels confided in her that Johnson invited certain Nicolet students to his home, where he would have them do "inappropriate physical exercises."

Another former Nicolet assistant principal backed up these claims, as he said Reiels informed him of Johnson's behavior, the investigation report said.

Reiels told one of the principals at the time that Johnson had been instructed to stop such conduct. He told the other principal he should "keep a strict eye" on Johnson in any extracurricular program with students in which Johnson was involved, the report said.

However, after a closed session of the School Board in July 1983, the district allowed Johnson to continue teaching while supervised. The district's investigator last year spoke with the School Board chairman at the time, who said the session was about Johnson's "inappropriate interaction with students" and that "the interaction was sexual in nature."

He recalls Johnson was warned not to engage in such conduct again or his employment would be terminated. The board never heard about inappropriate sexual conduct by Johnson again, according to the investigation.

A couple other board members did not recall the discussion from that closed session meeting, the investigation found.

Other incident involving Johnson

While he couldn't be charged in the Nicolet incidents, Johnson was charged outside of Milwaukee County years after he left the district.

He pleaded no contest to and was convicted of fourth-degree sexual assault in Waupaca County Circuit Court in 2003.

Johnson is known for other reasons as well.

A scholarship — the Johnson Mathematics Scholarship — is given to the highest achieving math student at Waupun High School. The award has been given out the last seven years. The mathematics department of Waupun Area High School selects the recipients based solely on math ability at the direction of Johnson.

Johnson is a 1954 graduate of Waupun High School.

He is also a past president of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching from President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1983.

Seeking information

Current Nicolet district officials are encouraging former students who may have been sexually assaulted at the high school years ago to come forward.

The district has pledged to keep the victims' identities confidential and unidentifiable.

The school issued an apology to any victims of Johnson and is working to connect victims with community resources for sexual abuse survivors.

The district also is updating policies and the employee handbook on staff and student relationships and sexual harassment. It has provided additional staff training on maintaining professional relationships, setting appropriate boundaries with students and mandatory reporting obligations. Training was conducted in August.

The district also has created an anonymous reporting option to report abuse and reviewed the reporting option and the type of conduct students should report during the first week of school.

"While the misconduct reported by the former student occurred many years ago, we felt an obligation to learn, as best we could, how it could have happened and whether other students may have been harmed," current Nicolet School Board President Libby Gutterman said in a written statement to North Shore Now. "Needless to say, the school board and current administration are deeply troubled by the findings of this investigation and concerns of this nature would be handled much differently today.

"The district is committed to protecting the safety and well-being of current and future Nicolet students, and has taken a number of steps to prevent this from ever happening again."

The district also plans to inform parents and staff regularly that any abuse will not be tolerated and remind them about how complaints should be reported confidentially to the appropriate authorities.

Anyone who has been abused or has information about Johnson's misconduct is encouraged to call Kobylski at (414) 351-7525.