Published in the High Desert Advocate May 10, 2018
A former school teacher at Wells Elementary School has pleaded no contest to charges of engaging in sexual conduct with high school students.
Tennille Whitaker, now 41 years old, entered the plea Monday to four felony counts of sexual conduct between a school employee and a student.
Elko County deputies arrested the former Wells elementary teacher at the Wells Combined School in June of last year on suspicion of sexual contact with two male students. Additional charges were filed in August involving two more teens.
According to court documents, three of the teens were 16 or older at the time of the encounters, which occurred between September 2015 and June 2017 on school property and at other locations.
Whitaker resigned from the Elko County School District last August. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.
In June she had been charged with eight counts of sexual conduct with a pupil. According to Elko County Undersheriff Ron Supp, there were two alleged victims between the ages of 16 and 18 who were high school students at the time the contact occurred. Whitaker had been working with the school district full time for 11 years. Her bail back then had been set at $160,000.
Last year, Elko County School District Superintendent Jeff Zander said “keeping students safe is the district’s highest priority”.
Then Zander said that Whitaker had been placed on administrative leave with pay pending full investigation. “The Elko County School District takes this very seriously and we have policies in place to prohibit this type of conduct. The safety of our students is the highest priority.”
The alleged incidents occurred over a two-year span, with some incidents occurring on school grounds. The Elko County Sheriff’s Department began investigating the allegations in October of the previous year after receiving a tip from a concerned parent who noticed Whitaker was behind closed classroom doors with a student and thought it was inappropriate.
The school district began conducting its own investigation in February of 2017, speaking to teachers and faculty at Wells Combined School. Students who were interviewed for the investigation claimed they were unaware of any sexual activity between Whitaker and students.
