NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) —  A New Hanover County science teacher is being honored for her work in the classroom.

Roland Grise Middle School teacher, Stephanie Titzel, recently received the 2017 North Carolina Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year Award.

Titzel is a graduate of North Carolina State University science program and received her Master’s degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Supervision at UNCW. She is also a Nationally Board Certified Teacher and Kenan Fellow recipient. Titzel received the award for her passion and dedication as a teacher and consistently remaining focused on the needs of her students, while being a role model and teacher leader.

Through the Ag in the Classroom… Going Local program… the North Carolina Farm Bureau proves agricultural outreach grants to state teachers worth up to $500. Going Local Grants help teachers provide students Pre-K through college with real-world education and experiences directly related to the agricultural industry and Common Core State and Essential Standards.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — An area student will be traveling to Washington, DC later this month as a finalist for a national STEM competition.

Regan Williams, a Roland-Grise Middle School (RGMS) student, is one of over 6,000 students across the country in grades 6-8 to enter the Broadcom MASTERS® national STEM competition.

On September 30, she was selected as one of 30 finalists in the annual contest.  Finalists are competing for more than $100,000 in awards.

All finalists receive a $500 cash award and an all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC for the competition.  Winners will be named on October 24, after the finalists complete a competition that will test their abilities in STEM, critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration.

“Playing the cello and lacrosse are my favorite things to do,” Regan Williams says.  Her other activities include soccer, basketball, and fencing.  She would like to become an epidemiologist.  “Human-animal interactions are becoming more common as a result of climate change and habitat destruction,” she says. Regan hopes to help control diseases that could spread to people from those interactions.

Broadcom MASTERS® (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars), a program founded and produced by the Society for Science and the Public, seeks to inspire young scientists, engineers, and innovators who will solve the grand challenges of the future.  Regan’s project, Marsh Attacks: Context-dependent Effects of Intraspecific Trait Variation in a Marsh Ecosystem Predator-prey Interaction, caught the attention of judges and she was named a member of the top 300 MASTERS® in the Broadcom MASTERS® national middle school science competition.

Regan loves exploring coastal ecosystems.  Her favorite is a salt marsh.

It’s much more than “just a bunch of grass,” she says.  “Once you take a closer look you see that it has many diverse animals that interact in amazing ways to impact how the entire marsh functions.”

For example, marsh periwinkle snails eat plants, which keeps plants from growing out of control.  Meanwhile, blue crabs prey on snails, which controls snail populations and protects marsh plants.  Regan noticed that the smaller snails seemed to climb higher on salt marsh plant stalks.  She thought they might be trying to escape the snail’s main predator, the blue crab, so she decided to investigate.  The results of Regan’s project suggested that if people overfish large blue crabs from salt marshes, which could alter the balance between the snails and crabs.  And that “could, ultimately, alter marsh productivity,” Regan warns.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) –  Overcrowding in New Hanover County high schools and middle schools has the school board debating redistricting.

That was the center of a Tuesday afternoon workshop. Board members reviewed two options for redistricting middle and high schools either in 2018-2019 or 2019-2020. The school district has already set redistricting to take place for elementary schools for the 2020-2021 calendar year.

They want to alleviate overcrowding at school likes Ashley, Laney and New Hanover High schools. Overcrowding in those schools is significant with more than 300 students taking classes at Laney compared to what the school can hold. Middle schools like Noble, Roland Grise and Murray middle are in need of reorganized class sizes as well. Murray middle has also 300 more students than the school is capable of holding.

School board members voted to push back middle school redistricting to 2019-2020. They did that so that renovations at schools like Myrtle Grove Middle and Roland-Grise will not make the changeover in students an even larger headache.

They want more information on high school redistricting.

“I don’t think when this meeting was convened it was really intended to give us hard numbers of what would be the impact of doing this and doing that,” said New Hanover County School Board Chair Edward Higgins. “I am looking for the next meetings to give us those kinds of numbers of what’s the impact especially at the high school level.”

The school board will look at several options for redrawing the districts for high schools when they reconvene in January.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A band teacher who has spent more than 20 years with New Hanover County Schools made his first court appearance on a dozen child sex crimes charges.

Peter Frank, 47, appeared in court via a video conference on Tuesday afternoon.

He’s charged with six counts of indecent liberties with a child and six counts of indecent liberties with a student by a teacher. Each count carries a maximum of 59 months in prison.

Investigators say the crimes began in 2003 and most recently in 2019 dealing with six victims. Prosecutors said one of the victims is a current student.

In court, District Attorney Ben David revealed he is turning the case over to the NC Attorney General’s Office because of a conflict of interest. An employee in the district attorney’s office, who attended Roland Grise years ago, will serve as a witness because one of their friend’s reported being assaulted by Frank. David said his office was made aware of that report in the beginning of January.

“They were classmates at the time in Roland Grise 16 years ago when this young woman was a student and so was my employee. She relayed to my employee that inappropriate contact had happened with Mr. Frank,” David said.

Frank began working with New Hanover County Schools in 1997. Frank was suspended with pay December 3, 2015 while an investigation was completed. Six days later, he was  suspended without pay for 10 days for an incident not involving a student. No word on what that investigation was concerning.

“We frequently tell our children that if they see something, they should say something,” David said. ‘I go to every middle school and every high school every year in this district, including to Roland Grise back in December. I’ve been doing that for as long as those young women were in school. Now they’re not young anymore and neither am I. What I will say, is that we as adults need to model that behavior too.”

One parent, who has been vocal with the school board about taking a tougher stance on sexual misconduct, was not surprised at Frank’s arrest.

“I reported it nine months ago, and I’m wondering if, in that nine-month period, some other student has been assaulted,” Lynn Shoemaker said.

Shoemakers says she got a message on social media nine months ago about alleged misconduct.

“That her sister was a victim of a teacher in middle school, and that she’s suffering PTSD because he’s still teaching in the same school, and it was her band teacher,” Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker says she emailed the school board, but was told unless she had a name of a specific teacher, they could not investigate.

“How many students were harmed by this person from the first time he was reported?” Shoemaker said.

WWAY reached out to New Hanover County Schools, who told us Frank is currently on suspension and has been since Thursday.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A local rape crisis center is trying to educate kids in schools about what is and is not appropriate behavior after a Roland Grise Middle School band teacher was arrested on 12 sex crime charges, including some involving students.

Peter Frank was arrested Monday on child sex crimes, making him the third New Hanover County employee to face these types of charges in less than two years.

“We want to get ahead of what’s happening,” says Chelsea Croom of the Coastal Horizons Rape Crisis Center. “We want parents to talk to their kids starting from a very young age so that as they grow up, they know that they can trust their parent, and they know that they can talk with their parent.”

Croom says they have several programs aimed at educating students about appropriate behavior at school.

“It’s teaching kids boundaries,” she says, “and it’s also teaching them who can they trust within their school system, within their school, who can they tell if something has happened or if they’re uncomfortable. It also talks about bullying and what flirting looks like, what is flirting versus hurting.”

Frank first appeared in court Tuesday, facing 12 felony charges, six indecent liberties with a child and six indecent liberties with a student by a teacher.

Police say these incidents happened between 2003 and 2019 involving six victims.

To read the news release from the New Hanover County Board of Education, click here.

If you’ve ever been a victim of sexual misconduct, the Rape Crisis Center offers free therapy.

If you have any information related to Peter Frank, please contact the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Warrants from the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office reveal new details in the arrest of a New Hanover County teacher.

Roland Grise Middle School band teacher Peter Frank was arrested Monday and charged with 12 counts of child sex crimes.

According to an arrest warrant, the most recent incident between Frank and a student happened between June and December of 2019, when the child was just 12 years old.

Another warrant references an incident that happened back in 2004.

Detectives say the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office got a report from a former student at Roland Grise about a prior incident with Frank when she was middle-school aged.

A search warrant reveals that former student was surfing at Wrightsville Beach when Frank came to pick her up.

“The prior student explained Peter Frank picked her up and drove her to his residence, he drove her to Carolina BBQ to get food, then drove her back to hr residence,” the warrant said. “The student states she showed Frank her residence, while nobody was home, and they walked to a common area of the residence, and Frank kissed her.”

The warrant goes on to reveal another incident involving a second student. Detectives say she was around 13 years old when she was in Frank’s office at Roland Grise.

“She took a Diet Pepsi bottle and placed it in her mouth simulating a sexual act. The investigation revealed Frank kept the bottle for approximately 17 years in a drawer in his office,” the warrant said.

Detectives go on to say recent communication between the former student and Frank reveals Frank kept the bottle as a memento to the sexual act.

“When the prior student asked Frank why he still had the bottle, Frank messaged asking, ‘What man wouldn’t keep that?'” the warrant said.

Detectives say Frank admitted to keeping the bottle.

According to another search warrant, detectives searched Frank’s personnel records from Roland Grise. The records show Frank has been counseled on inappropriate relationships with students during his time at the school.

In Frank’s personnel records, detectives reportedly found a social media post where a student posted a picture in a bathing suit.

“Frank comments on the photograph saying, ‘I can’t say really what I want to say, but it might rhyme with lubes.'” the warrant said.

The warrant shows a letter was placed in Frank’s personnel file in 2013 about the incident. Another letter dated 1999 was also put in his personnel file, indicating Frank took a student to his home and played video games for several hours.

Detectives say Frank turned himself in to the sheriff’s office on January 24, and voluntarily handed over his cellphone to be searched.

“Upon reviewing the data from Frank’s cellular telephone, images of middle school aged females were located,” the warrant said. “The images portrayed the clothed backsides of female students. It is apparent that the students were not aware their photographs were being taken.”

When asked, Frank reportedly confessed to being sexually attracted to middle school aged females.

Detectives also asked Frank about an incident where he took a female student to her residence and kissed her. They say his story coincides with the student’s story, except for where he kissed her.

During a search of Frank’s home, detectives say Frank also allowed them to take his computers to be searched.

“Detectives located files on the computer labeled with female students’ names which contained clothed pictures of the female students,” the warrant said.

Frank began working with New Hanover County Schools in 1997. Frank was suspended with pay December 3, 2015 while an investigation was completed. Six days later, he was  suspended without pay for 10 days for an incident not involving a student. No word on what that investigation was concerning.

Frank is now suspended without pay.

Frank is charged with six counts of indecent liberties with a child and six counts of indecent liberties with a student.

He appeared in court on Tuesday. The case is being turned over to the NC Attorney General’s Office because there is a conflict of interest. An employee in the New Hanover County District Attorney’s Office will serve as a witness in the case because one of their friends reported being assaulted.

He is being held under a $750,000 bond.

The sheriff’s office has set u a dedicated phone line for the Peter Frank investigation. The number is 910-798-4399.

It goes to a voicemail prompt that states that it is the sheriff’s office tip line for the Peter Frank investigation. A detective will be assigned the tips to call back for follow up.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — After staying relatively silent since Roland Grise Middle School band teacher Peter Frank’s arrest, the New Hanover County School Board welcomed the media Thursday to ask questions.

However, little to no new information was shared.

The board did say that Frank was still suspended without pay. They say because he is tenured, there are some legal hoops to jump through before he can be fired.

While Board Chair Lisa Estep says the goal of the presser was to give an update on Frank, Board Member Judy Justice says she wasn’t even notified the news conference was happening.

“I found out about this news conference when I was walking my dog and a reporter called me. I wasn’t even informed earlier,” Justice says. “I still have questions I haven’t had answered and I’m a board member. And that’s even from other board members.”

Estep did share that the board is considering releasing parts of Frank’s personnel file. Besides announcing this possibility, the board only repeated that Frank was suspended without pay, news that was already released.

“We acknowledge that a third arrest for sexual abuse in less than two years is jarring and concerning to everyone,” Estep says.

On Tuesday, WWAY reported that a parent, Lynn Shoemaker, claimed she reported Frank’s alleged abuse to the board nine months ago, though she did not include his name.

Board Member Bill Rivenbark seemed to think Shoemaker should have done more.

“If there’s a parent out there that says they knew something, reported it, and then just dropped it, then I’ve got a problem with that,” Rivenbark says.

The board says anyone with concerns about a school employee can report those anonymously.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A criminal investigation is underway into a Roland Grise Middle School teacher, charged with child sex crimes. Now, local attorneys have launched their own civil investigation into the matter.

“The stories I have heard so far are horrendous,” says attorney Jim Lea. “These are middle school girls. 12, 13, 14 years old being taken advantage of by their teachers, or teacher.”

Lea and several fellow attorneys announced their own civil investigation into Frank, who faces 12 counts of child sex crimes.

Lea says their focus is to get compensation for the victims of these alleged crimes.

Earlier this week, the New Hanover County School Board held a press conference on Frank, who is currently suspended without pay.

“We acknowledge that a third arrest for sexual abuse in less than two years is jarring and concerning to everyone,” says board chair Lisa Estep.

However, at that same news conference, Estep declined to answer certain questions about their handling of these misconduct allegations.

Lea and his team also opened a civil investigation into longtime teacher Michael Kelly, who pleaded guilty to sex crimes last year.

Lea says they should not have to be bringing civil action again.

“They did not have the systems in place to protect our children,” Lea says. “They didn’t pay attention to the reports that were made time after time. If they claim they did not know, that’s terrible. They’re negligent. If they did know, it’s even worse.”

Lea says they have already had several victims come forward and he expects there are more to come.

The school board says they are considering releasing parts of Frank’s personnel file.

The board will hold a special meeting Sunday at 4 p.m.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The New Hanover County School Board held a special meeting on Sunday after middle school teacher Peter Frank was arrested Monday and charged with 12 counts of child sex crimes.

Similar to the news conference the board held Thursday, a lot of questions were left unanswered.

Angry parents and concerned community members made their voices heard before the meeting.

“Hey hey..ho ho..Markley’s got to go!” The crowd chanted. “What do you want? Justice! When do you want it? Now!”

When the meeting started, the board immediately voted to go into closed session.

Parents and community members stayed in the room, discussing among themselves.

“If this has been going on for the last 20 or 30 years..God knows how many people’s children have been molested,” Community Activist Reverend Dante Murphy said.

Frank is the third teacher in the district in less than two years accused of sexual misconduct. Former teacher Michael Kelly pleaded guilty to sex crimes last year.

“Why were they either let still be in our district working with children or why were they let proceed on to other districts where they were arrested later for the same thing?” Roland Grise teacher Lesley Sloan asked. “We wanna know why. We want answers too.”

Sloan continued to say other teachers at Roland Grise are doing everything they can to keep students safe and encourage them to speak up if anything ever happens to them.

Activist Reverend Dante Murphy wants to see change.

He is calling for the state Department of Instruction to take over the school district.

“This is an epidemic and if this does not warrant a take over then they need to forget about taking over school systems for any other reason,” Murphy said. “This system has a problem with teachers molesting students. Something has to be done.”

Not only that, Murphy is calling for the termination of Superintendent Dr. Tim Markley.

“Dr. Tim Markley should have been fired long before today,” Murphy said. “And if he’s not fired today I still wonder what it is that’s keeping him within this system based on what has happened over the many years.”

After the nearly two and a half hour meeting, Board Chair Lisa Estep made a statement saying the board is conducting its own investigation in the matter involving Peter Frank. She says they will continue the discussion in closed session at their meeting Tuesday evening.

The board did not take further questions or comments.

As of Sunday, Peter Frank is still employed with New Hanover County Schools and is suspended without pay.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — New Hanover County Commissioners are ready to get help in solving the school district’s problems with alleged sexual misconduct.

Commissioners made it clear in a statement Monday that they are focused on making the school system safe for every student. This is not the first time they have offered to help the district, but they’re hoping the school board accepts their help.

“One is too many,” Commissioner Jonathan Barfield said. “Two is definitely too many. Three is definitely, definitely too many.”

Three teachers in the district have been accused of sexual misconduct in less than two years.

“When help is offered and you know that you need help, put your pride on the shelf, so to speak, and accept the help that’s being offered,” Barfield said.

Barfield and his fellow commissioners proposed to help the school board investigate allegations, and provide resources to students to help them through the situations. The announcement comes just a week after Roland Grise Middle School Band teacher Peter Frank was charged with sex crimes.

“I think we’re seeing the results of many years of issues,” Commissioner Rob Zapple said. “Different school board members, different administrators. It’s all combined to get to this point now.”

Zapple and Barfield say they will do whatever the school board lets them, including investigating personnel files and bringing in investigators and crisis teams to talk with students and teachers.

“The public’s trust has been broken, so we stand ready to help in any way we can to rebuild that,” Zapple said.

But has that trust been broken with the county as well?

“I trust them to make the right decision at this point, if they engage our board,” Barfield said.

If they do that, Barfield says that trust will start to be rebuilt with the community.

“I’m hoping with this new culture, this new school board, and knowing there’s an election around the corner as well, we can change the culture within our school system, and let folks know that these things just won’t be tolerated,” Barfield said.

At a special meeting Tuesday night, the school board said they are looking forward to working with commissioners.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Turmoil continues to brew over alleged sexual abuse in New Hanover County Schools.

One parent shares new allegations and frustrations. She says she reported an incident with her daughter in 2017, and is just now getting key answers.

“This is happening way too much,” Laylah Marsh said. “One incident, sure. But multiple and many over a stretch of years, there’s definitely a problem.”

In 2017, Marsh says a cafeteria employee at Roland Grise Middle School started flirting with and then texting her 7th grader, asking her for inappropriate pictures.

“She said he would text her mainly right after school would let out, but then he had also started texting her on the weekend,” Marsh said. “So she came to me with this. She knew there was definitely something wrong with that.”

Marsh says her daughter came to her after two or three weeks. She says she took the messages to a meeting with school administrators and her daughter.

“They passed the phone around,” Marsh said. “All of them acknowledged it. They all acknowledged that it was definitely inappropriate.”

After that, Marsh says she never heard another word until she followed up with the principal weeks later.

“I said, ‘How can he still be here?'” she said. “And he said the process was in place and he had notified the appropriate areas, and that it just takes time.”

Marsh says still, she never heard anything more. Then in 2019, she heard the news about former teacher Michael Kelly who pleaded guilty to sex crimes.

“That’s when it dawned on me, ‘Hey I never heard anything back about that,'” she said. “‘I never received any official documentation about what they did with that matter.”

In July 2019, Marsh followed up with school officials about the incident, filing a complaint. Shortly after, she says she got this letter from Superintendent Tim Markley saying the employee no longer worked for the school system, but they had investigated.

“That the school had handled the situation, but they found it not to be any criminal activity,” Marsh said.

Just this week, Marsh says she got another email from the school finally naming that former employee for the first time, and directing her to the sheriff’s office if she had further concerns. But that came too little and much too late for Marsh.

“It just leaves this hole, like how can this be happening with our children?” she said.

WWAY is not naming that former employee since he’s never been charged in the case.

The school board is holding another special meeting Friday at 7:30 a.m.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Another employee of Roland-Grise Middle School in Wilmington has been suspended.

This comes a week and a half after Roland-Grise band teacher Peter Frank was arrested and charged with 12 counts of child sex crimes.

In a letter to parents and Roland-Grise supporters, Principal Charlie Broadfoot wrote, “Out of an abundance of caution, a Roland-Grise staff member was suspended with pay today, February 7, 2020 while an allegation of inappropriate behavior toward students was investigated. This allegation was thoroughly investigated and law enforcement cleared the staff member of any criminal wrongdoing.”

Earlier Friday, the New Hanover County School Board said Peter Frank remains suspended without pay because his tenure makes it difficult to move quickly in his termination process.

Broadfoot said New Hanover County Schools and law enforcement will continue to investigate all allegations and complaints.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Former Middle School Teacher Peter Frank is accused of child sex crimes in New Hanover County. A request has been made to change the venue for his trial.

According to Laura Brewer with the State Attorney General’s Office, a judge has taken under advisement that motion for a change of venue, but no decision has been made yet.

Frank was arrested in January and charged with a dozen counts of sex crimes.

He is a former band teacher at Roland Grise Middle School in Wilmington.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — We are less than a week before the first day of school for most children in our region and this year the preparations are looking much different.

Students and parents would normally attend orientation or open houses to meet teachers, see their classrooms, and more. This year the houses are closed thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In New Hanover County, students will be learning remotely for the first nine weeks. This week some schools are opting for virtual orientations and open houses, while others are offering drive-thru options for families.

It’s an opportunity to meet teachers and pick up information packets and devices. There was a long line of vehicles waiting their turn at Roland-Grise Middle School on Wednesday. One parent described the experience.

“They were basically seeing if we had filled out the right stuff to get computers, all that. And then they were giving the kids a packet that had their teachers and classes and how to get in touch with their teachers and all that kind of stuff,” said parent Gene Mears. “It took a while, but once we got up there it was very simple, they were very friendly.”

There are several more virtual and drive-thru open houses Thursday. Click here for more information.

The first day of school is Monday.

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, N.C. (WWAY) — Monday, Aug. 23 was the first day of school for most students in the county, with children on the traditional schedule going back fully in-person.

Superintendent Dr. Charles Foust went to various schools to make sure everything went smoothly.

“We are excited to be here, face-to-face, first day of school,” Foust said.

Roland-Grise Middle School welcomed students back to the classroom with Dr. Foust making it a special stop — dropping off one of his own children.

He says that having a child in the classroom helps him do his job.

“I’m going to treat your child just like it’s my child,” Foust said. “I have that same compassion. Just knowing that the expectation is the same across all schools and so that’s where we are.”

8th grade teacher Sasha Wooddell says she’s excited to have all her kids in the classroom, rather than trying to teach some through Zoom.

“For me the priority is that the kids are back in class,” Wooddell says.

While at school, everyone must wear their masks indoors. Students can take the masks off outside.

“They need to be here, but we need to do it in a safe manner though,” Wooddell says. “Right now we’re off to a good start.”