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February 6, 2010

Lancer leader resigns

By Dan Nienaber The Free Press

MANKATO — A Mankato West teacher, who was placed on paid leave during an investigation into an incident involving a former student, has resigned.

The resignation of Tedd Gullickson, who was a band teacher and director of the Mankato Area 77 Lancers Marching Band, was accepted unanimously during a special meeting of the Mankato Area Public School Board Saturday. His resignation went into effect Tuesday, a school district news release said.

No criminal charges were filed against Gullickson, 52, after a Department of Natural Resources officer found him at 2 p.m. Nov. 19 in the back seat of a car with an 18-year-old woman at Seven Mile Creek County Park. The officer requested an investigation because the woman was “suspiciously younger” then Gullickson and failed to provide identification, police reports said.

The woman, who was a former student, told investigators the two were “making out” and it was consensual. She also said they had been having a sexual relationship since June, or about three weeks after she graduated, which included sexual encounters at West High School. The woman said the relationship involved kissing and touching, but no intercourse.

Gullickson told the DNR officer the two were just talking at the park, which is between Mankato and St. Peter on Highway 169. He denied having a sexual relationship, saying the former student was troubled and he was acting as a father figure.

Investigators used a search warrant to obtain information from Gullickson’s personnel file at the school district offices in Mankato. Three documents were taken as a result of the search.

The case was reviewed by prosecutors in Blue Earth and Nicollet counties. County attorneys in both counties decided there were no grounds for criminal charges.

After those decisions, Gullickson remained on administrative leave while the school district conducted its own investigation. Community Education and Recreation, which operates the summer Lancer program, had already decided Gullickson would be replaced as director this year.

School district policy says sexual relationships, including dating, are “strictly forbidden” between school employees and students.

The policy applies when employees are on or off duty and whether they are on or off school grounds. The age of the student doesn’t matter.

The woman with Gullickson at the park had been a student in several of his music classes in junior high school and high school, police reports said. Gullickson was hired by the school district in 1984.

Gullickson, who also taught band at Dakota Meadows Middle School, declined to comment about the resignation when reached by telephone at his house Saturday morning.

The School Board was on a retreat Saturday. The board decided to hold a special meeting prior to events that were planned for the day.

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Lancer leader resigns
by By Dan Nienaber , The Free Press , Sun Feb 07, 2010, 12:06 AM CST
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