Former special education employee charged with sexually assaulting Columbus student
A former employee of a special education services provider was arrested after allegedly sexually assaulting a student on a Columbus school bus.
On April 22, Muscogee County School District police arrested Devin Douglas, 24, on charges of public indecency, sexual assault by a person with supervisory or disciplinary authority, and possession of marijuana. Three days later, he also was charged with violation of probation, according to Muscogee County Jail records.
Tennessee-based ChanceLight Education has been providing MCSD special education services since the school board approved a $17 million, three-year contract in June 2019.
It’s unclear when and where the alleged incident occurred. Wednesday night, ChanceLight released a statement that says the company became aware April 14 of the accusation against Douglas, who was one of its employees at the time.
“Once we learned of the allegation, we can confirm that the individual was immediately removed from his workplace, suspended while our internal investigation was conducted, terminated from employment and taken into custody by law enforcement,” the company said. “ChanceLight Education has cooperated fully with school and law enforcement officials since we were made aware of this allegation.”
MCSD didn’t answer the Ledger-Enquirer’s questions in its response. Instead, interim communications director Kimberly Wright emailed the L-E a statement Thursday morning that confirms “once an allegation was made against the individual in question, his employer, ChanceLight, removed him from the workplace and relieved him of his duties.”
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 10:49 AM.
