Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- A Pleasant Grove Junior High teacher, Keaton Tanner, has been arrested for investigation of rape of a child.
- Police were alerted by a friend of the victim.
- Authorities fear Tanner may flee to Germany, requesting that he be held without bail.
PLEASANT GROVE — A teacher at Pleasant Grove Junior High School was arrested after being accused of sexually abusing a student.
Keaton Tanner, 29, of American Fork, a social studies teacher at the school, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of the rape of a child and two counts of witness tampering.
Pleasant Grove police had recently been contacted by a friend of a young girl.
"The victim told her she had a secret and then told her about her boyfriend she had in junior high. The victim told the (friend) her boyfriend was Mr. Tanner. The (friend) knew Mr. Tanner from attending Pleasant Grove Junior High School where he was a history and guided studies teacher," according to a police booking affidavit.
The arrest report does not say how long ago the alleged abuse occurred.
The friend contacted police after she and the girl went to Tanner's residence to confront him about what allegedly happened. While there, the friend said she told "another unknown female" about the relationship. The girls then left and parked in front of a Pleasant Grove home where Tanner later arrived, knocked on the window and got into the back seat, according to the affidavit. The friend recorded the interaction with a cellphone.
After Tanner got out of the car, he went to the driver's side window and police say the cellphone briefly recorded his face and a conversation that followed.
"In the video, you can hear Keaton telling the victim to tell 'her' they just made out or something and didn't have sex. The (friend) is then heard telling Keaton he needs to learn from his mistakes and can't bribe a person. I asked what this was about, and (the friend) said it was because (she) had told the female at his house about the relationship. The (friend) said Keaton told the victim he would give her a bunch of money and said he had $500 in his car," the affidavit alleges. "In the video, you can hear the (friend) telling Keaton he needs to learn that 'little girls' should not be attractive to him to which Keaton replies, 'I have' and that he 'hasn't done anything with anyone else.'"
When the friend tells Tanner that he was the girl's teacher, Tanner is heard on video saying, "He wasn't 'her' teacher," to which the friend replied, "It didn't matter because he was still a teacher at the victim's junior high," according to the affidavit.
When the administration at the junior high was contacted, investigators learned that Tanner had previously been told "to stop having the victim in his classroom all the time alone," the affidavit states.
School administrators also told police that Tanner had recently requested to go on a sabbatical to Germany for a year to work on a master's degree.
"It should be noted Mr. Tanner served an LDS mission in Germany and goes there often. It is feared he is trying to flee the country as he asked for the sabbatical shortly after being confronted by the victim and (her friend)," the arresting officer wrote in the affidavit.
Police have requested Tanner be held in jail without the possibility of posting bail.
The Alpine School District, in a prepared statement to KSL.com, said Tanner had been placed on administrative leave following his arrest.
"Alpine School District is taking all available steps to cooperate with law enforcement. We are in communication with the Pleasant Grove Police Department as they conduct their investigation. The welfare of our students is nonnegotiable. All district employees undergo a criminal background check prior to beginning employment. When we learn of employee conduct that may violate the trust patrons have placed in us, we take appropriate action to protect students. We are grateful for the professionalism of our law enforcement partners."
