WORTHINGTON, Ohio — The leader of Worthington Christian School released a statement on Wednesday regarding the sexual abuse charges against a former girls' high school basketball coach.
Franklin County Municipal Court records say Jason Dawson, 35, was charged with two counts of sexual battery involving a minor and one count of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.
In December 2023, a detective with the Columbus Division of Police interviewed a woman who said she was in a relationship with Dawson from her sophomore year in 2019 through September 2023.
Records document that the woman said the relationship became sexual in January 2021 when she was 16 years old and she had sex with Dawson about 100 times.
The woman told the detective that Dawson, who was also a teacher at the school, recorded them having sex multiple times and that he would send the videos to her. The Columbus Digital Forensics Unit was able to extract three of those videos from the woman's phone that showed the two of them having sex when she was 17 years old, court documents say.
The second sexual battery charge is associated with a different girl who was also on the basketball team. Court documents say that girl and Dawson had sex in November 2020 when she was 16 years old. No other information was provided.
Dawson was arrested in North Carolina on Monday.
Dr. Mike Hayes, the head of school at Worthington Christian, released a statement saying this was the first time the school heard of the allegations and called the alleged actions "despicable, criminal, and against everything we stand for and teach."
"No one—student, parent, or anyone else—ever reported to us any alleged criminal activity about this former employee. If we had any evidence of criminal activity, we would have followed our policy, which is to immediately contact legal authorities," Hayes said.
The school says Dawson graduated from Worthington Christian High School in 2006 and was hired to teach and coach in 2014.
In his statement, Hayes said Dawson resigned to take a job in North Carolina in April 2022 after "two incidents of employment discipline on matters not related to allegations of criminal activity."
"I feel sickened, outraged, and betrayed that anyone who we employed would abuse a child. We will all do whatever we can to give love and support to any student and their family identified in these reports. More importantly, we will pray for and with them. We ask everyone to join us in those prayers," Hayes said.
The school asks anyone with information regarding the allegations against Dawson, or any allegations of criminal behavior by anyone, to come forward and talk with police.