According to a criminal complaint filed by the municipal police, a math instructor at Williamsport Area High School has been suspended and is being prosecuted for sending two 16-year-old female pupils indecent texts and verbal comments.
According to police, Christopher P. Yoder, 42, of 1725 Almond St., has been charged with harassing and corrupting a juvenile’s morals, two misdemeanors, and felony unlawful contact with a minor.
In one alleged incident, Yoder “encouraged a minor to send a sexual image (of her) to him,” Agent Brittany Alexander alleged in court papers.
In a Snapchat message to Yoder on May 11, the 16-year-old student “asked him if there was a Zoom meeting because they were on remote learning this day. Yoder replied ‘No, go read a book.’ In turn the juvenile responded saying ‘No, I don’t read.’ Yoder inquired what she was going to do with her free time, and she told him that she was going to take a shower and then go to her boyfriend’s after school,” Alexander said in an affidavit.
“Yoder then responded, saying ‘Well, thanks for the mental image.’ This statement alarmed the juvenile, who then realized that Yoder had sent another message, but had quickly deleted it. When she questioned him about (what he said in the deleted message), he replied ‘he would like to see all of that.’ Yoder admitted to the teen that he knew he was wrong to say that,” the investigator said in the court document.
The student “deleted Yoder from Snapchat as a result of the comments. She said the comments made her feel uncomfortable and she feared what Yoder would do if she told anyone,” Alexander said.
The same student reported incidents she recalled in the classroom in which several times “Yoder would draw a heart on her hand or a smiley face on her leg through a hole in her ripped jeans,” the investigator added.
In another incident, when a second 16-year-old female student asked Yoder in class what kind of prom dress she should wear, he told her to “wear a tight red dress with a low-cut V neck, saying it would ‘fit her figure,’” Alexander said in the affidavit
When Alexander questioned this second student, “the juvenile became very emotional during our conversation, fearing that Yoder would not be held accountable for his actions,” according to the affidavit.
Yoder, a teacher in the Williamsport Area School District since 2007, was placed on paid leave as of May 14, according to a spokesman for the institution.
Yoder turned himself in at the district judge’s office on Tuesday with the assistance of his attorney.
He was transported to the Lycoming County Prison after his arraignment in lieu of $85,000 bail.
