A Madison elementary school teacher turned himself in to police Friday after being accused of sexually assaulting a student repeatedly five years ago.
Terry D. Fay, a fifth grade teacher at Leopold Elementary School, was arrested on a tentative charge of repeated acts of sexual assault. The alleged victim was 10 years old at the time of the abuse and the suspect was the child’s teacher, according to a Madison Police Department incident report.
MPD first received information about the victim a month ago, after the now fifteen-year-old disclosed information to a “trusted adult” about the assault that occurred five years prior. After Fay turned himself in to detectives in MPD’s Special Victims Unit, he was put on paid leave by the school.
Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham sent a letter to parents Friday, saying that “these allegations, if proven, violate the very essence of what it means to be an educator.”
“This is incredibly difficult news for all of us to grasp,” Cheatham said. “Right now, our focus is on two things: supporting our students and families and understanding every fact we can about this case.”
However, Cheatham defended the policies the district has in place to protect students.
“We are confident in our system for the safety and well-being of our students, and the investigators have given us no reason to believe other adults had any information about these allegations,” she said.
MPD asked anyone with information on the ongoing investigation to contact Madison Area Crime Stoppers at (608) 266-6014.
