Horry police stopped investigating teacher for sexual misconduct with student. Here’s why
Horry County Police closed an investigation into a Socastee High School special education teacher accused of an inappropriate student-teacher sexual relationship after the victim’s parents refused to press charges, according to police records.
The parents of the student discovered the sexual misconduct involving their son and his teacher, Rachel Gray, in late March and informed the school district, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
Horry Schools special ed teacher ‘groomed,’ sexually assaulted student, lawsuit alleges
The same day the parent’s attorney, Joshua Slavin, notified the school of the pending litigation, the school contacted the police, according to records obtained by The Sun News.
Incident reports, written by Horry County detective John Brantly, say that after receiving a search warrant for Gray’s phone and reviewing evidence sent by Slavin in an email, he attempted to contact the victim’s family about pressing charges.
He was met with a confrontational response, Brantly wrote in the report. It’s not clear who he spoke to.
“After explaining again that this had nothing to do with a civil litigation thing, that this was a criminal investigation he advised that he had a 5 million dollar lawsuit against the school and his attorney advised him not to talk to anyone,” the report states. “I inquired if that also included the police in a criminal investigation, and he stated yes because he didn’t want to pursue criminal charges.”
Slavin confirmed that the family did not wish to press charges over the phone with Brantly, stating that a criminal case would be “too invasive” for the family, the report states. Police made a follow-up inquiry on April 24 but received no response.
No charges have been made against Gray. Horry County spokesperson Mikayla Moscov could not be immediately reached for a comment.
According to the lawsuit, Gray “groomed” the student with “preferential treatment,” including completing his homework assignments, sending him messages on Snapchat and inflating his grades before the inappropriate sexual behavior began in the spring.
“This included keeping John Doe in her class after other students were dismissed and sexually assaulting him,” the complaint states, “sending sexual messages and nude pictures to John Doe via Snapchat, and tracking his location on his phone.”
Gray had been a Socastee High special education teacher since the 2016-17 school year, according to records previously acquired by The Sun News, and was appointed head coach of the Socastee women’s volleyball team in 2019.
Her teaching certification is listed as active as of Tuesday, according to online S.C. Department of Education records, though her district is listed as unknown.
The lawsuit is the latest in a long line of recent allegations involving HCS special education employees harming their students.
Three employees have been arrested this year, including special education teachers at Ocean Bay Elementary and St. James Intermediate, for allegedly hitting or physically restraining students.
