According to the Washington State Patrol’s Missing and Exploited Children Task Force, multiple arrests have been made in connection with child exploitation crimes linked to educational settings this past year, including one involving an NSD teacher. 

On Dec. 10, 2024, Leota Middle School science teacher and girls basketball coach John Butz was arrested and charged with one count of attempted rape of a child in the first degree. NSD immediately placed him on administrative leave. After this, NSD released the following statement in an email to Leota families: 

“The District takes the health, safety and welfare of the District’s students very seriously. We will continue to work with our school’s administration and staff to remain focused on providing a positive educational experience throughout this challenging time.”

According to the police report by the Redmond Police Department, Butz was arrested as part of a sting operation involving detectives from Washington’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, involving multiple police agencies across the King and Snohomish counties. 

The police report states that on Nov. 7, 2024, an undercover detective involved in the operation posted a Craigslist ad requesting a tutor for nine to 12-year-old girls, who were fictional. The detective posed as their mother. In the police report, she told Butz verbally that she “grew up in the lifestyle, as (her) stepdad ‘showed (her) a lot of love and taught (her) about other ways to show and receive love.’”

The police report further states that the ad was  searching for  “someone with strong mentorship abilities and leadership qualities who is not afraid to teach my children about life lessons.” The ad was posted to target child predators who look for opportunities to gain unsupervised access to children. 

Butz responded to the ad on Nov. 16, and after several emails, he stated his name was “Ryan.” 

He expressed interest in meeting the undercover detective. They met twice at two different restaurants: first at the Marysville Mod Pizza on Nov. 16, and the second time at BJ’s Restaurant in Redmond on Dec. 10, the day of his arrest. By then, police had already obtained a judicial order authorizing audio and video recording of the second restaurant meeting.

According to the police report, the first meeting involved Butz indicating that he had been sexually involved with younger individuals. Intervening emails built trust, and during the second meeting at BJ’s Restaurant, Butz verbally said that he wanted to “pleasure” the detective’s 12-year-old daughter at Hampton Inn Hotel in Redmond. He drove to the hotel with lubricant and condoms, where he thought he was meeting the girl for the first time. Instead, police were waiting to arrest him. 

Many students have expressed their disbelief about the situation, including senior Rita Stoforandova (she/her), who was in Butz’s sixth grade science class in the 2018-19 school year.

“I was so shocked. I remember my friend — she texted me — I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” Stoforandova said. “And then I remember searching up all the articles, anything I could find. Because we were making sure that that was actually him, and not someone else we didn’t know.” 

Stoforandova added that her entire perspective on Butz changed because of this incident. 

“I remember that class as one of my most prominent memories in middle school especially, because that was one of my only science classes there — because of quarantine and everything,” Stoforandova said. “I just remember that memory being so nice and happy and wholesome, and then this completely shattered it.”

North Creek High senior Polly Tumelo (she/her)* also attended Leota and saw Butz on campus. She expressed her shock towards the situation. 

“I think my jaw dropped because my sister was the one that told me. She sent me a screenshot of the article that had his mugshot on it, and I had known that there was an incident that happened. But I was thinking, ‘If there was something that happened with a teacher, who would it be?’” Tumelo said. “And he was at the bottom of my list.” 

AP Environmental Science teacher Alicia Bower (she/her) has a son who attends Leota. After learning about Butz’s arrest, Bower said she worried if her son could distinguish inappropriate relationships from appropriate ones. 

“Your mind goes straight to, ‘Oh my God, did anything happen at school? Is there any overlap between this behavior and his behavior at school?’” Bower said. “So you just start reevaluating every interaction you’ve ever had and worrying over your child. Did I prepare them well enough to know if something isn’t right? Have I done my parenting job well enough?” 

To help with students’ wellbeing, Leota and NSD have provided support through counseling, and school staff have been making sure Butz’s students are safe. With permission and supervision from her mother, one of Butz’s students from this year, sixth grade student Marcia West (she/her)* was interviewed.

“The day after the news came out, we had our principal come in, and he had a talk with us. And for a few days, they had a teacher standing out by the (classroom) door so students wouldn’t feel unsafe,” West said. “I think a counselor came in and said that her office was open for anyone who wanted to visit.”

Given the sensitive nature of the situation, many students and staff at Leota have avoided discussing it in regular conversation, she said. West said that Butz’s arrest has created a tense environment at school and that it has affected students and staff in a dispiriting way. 

“I know some people joke about it, because that’s how they deal with it, but it’s kind of not something to joke about,” West said. “If you’re friends with someone, and then they just end up getting exposed like this, it’s really hard to think. It’s kind of like grief.” 

Beyond the immediate impact on students, the situation has also had parents thinking about long term impacts. West’s mother, Anne Howard (she/her)* shared her thoughts on how situations like these can impact mental health.

“I feel middle school is a very, very unstable time. I feel like kids need support, not just with studies, but as the hormonal changes happen,” Howard said. “According to me, there should be more awareness for mental health, and children should be able to talk about it more openly. There are a lot of social anxiety issues in middle school.” 

Overall, Tumelo vouched for conversations about child exploitation in the classroom. 

“Maybe in health class, we’ve talked about this kind of thing, but we really don’t talk about the dangers of grooming or even stuff that happens online. But I think a lot of the conversation around being online and that you never know who you’re talking to,” Tumelo said. “So it’s like anybody could get taken advantage of, and they wouldn’t know it. So I think having more of those conversations about trying to see the signs of when you know something might be going wrong, or the relationship you have isn’t healthy, and making sure that people know that it’s okay to report and it’s okay to reach out.”

The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a national network of programs dedicated to dealing with online child exploitation, investigates CyberTips: reports made by electronic service providers regarding suspected child predation. If they determine the tip to be of legitimate concern, the ICAC reaches out to local authorities and transfers the case to their jurisdiction. The number of CyberTips sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children — who run the tipline — increased from 29 million in 2021 to 36 million in 2023.

However, funding for the task force has yet to follow suit. In that same period, funding increased by only 17%, from $34.7 million to $40.8 million. According to the  National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction published by the Department of Justice, resources for the ICAC need to see a much larger increase to keep pace with the growing number of reports. As for other strategies, teaching youth about consent and sexual health will help decrease child sexual violence; according to the CDC, these skills lead to a lower rate of sexual harassment and victimization. 

The CDC says that the creation of protective environments can be achieved in a number of ways. Firstly, school administrators can identify areas where students feel more at risk and form safe spaces to facilitate help-seeking. Additionally, the CDC states that ensuring schools have constant staff monitoring and clear policies to respond to sexual assault is proven to reduce the cases of school-based sexual assault.

The UK National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children found that self-reported cases of online grooming had become more common, increasing by 80% over a four-year period with about 3,700 cases from 2017-18 to 7,600 cases in 2021-22. The National Office for Child Safety describes five stages of child grooming, although not all stages need to occur nor do they always occur in the same order. 

1. The young person is first targeted. Child exploitation may take many forms and affect youth of any age, race, geographic location or socioeconomic status, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says. 
2. Perpetrators often present themselves as trustworthy, reputable, generous and likeable, and they may build trust with the victim through special attention or gifts. 3. Perpetrators may progressively isolate the victim from supportive family and friends, and they may seek to exploit vulnerabilities in the victim’s life by providing practical or emotional support. 
3. Perpetrators may gradually introduce sexualized content or discussions to the victim to normalize this behavior. They will often exploit this or coerce the child to engage in sexual activity or produce child sexual abuse material. 
4. Perpetrators often weaponize secrecy, shame, blame, coercion and threats to maintain control in order to perpetrate the abuse and ensure the victim’s silence.

The Department of Homeland Security encourages children to speak transparently with trusted adults about online relationships. Additionally, adults should be aware of the signs of potential grooming: secrecy in online activity; the presence of an older romantic partner; inexplicable sums of money or gifts; and increased distress, anxiety, periods of depression or sexual behavior.

*Names changed for anonymity using a random name generator