SEQUIM — Sometimes they talked late into the night, the 52-year-old teacher and the 13-year-old girl.
She shared her secrets with him, many of which he already knew because, as part of a class project, he had helped her and several of her classmates in his computers class set up online “blogs” — slang for Web log, a diary or journal space which others could read if they had the site’s password.
He did, and regularly read the girl’s most intimate written thoughts.
She felt lonely and isolated, wanting a “hot boyfriend” to make her feel more accepted among her seventh-grade peers.
He offered sympathy as well as empathy, sometimes stepping into the role of the wise, soothing male elder, sometimes slipping into the slangy shorthand of teen Internet chat as a fellow gossip.
Hacked into computer
“I hacked into my mom’s computer and killed the parental controls (sic) we had agreed on getting rid of them but apparently she put them back,” the girl told him in a June 24 chat.
“You are so good,” the teacher answered.
“Actually it’s kind of stupid, she knows I can’t do it but she doesn’t care,” the girl continued.
“So when do I get to see you without makeup?” the teacher replied.
Using their computers, former Sequim Middle School technology teacher Chris Boushey and the student — and, on at least one occasion, several others in a private Internet chat room — conducted more than 20 hours of late-night conversations on at least 17 different occasions through MSN Messenger, an Internet chat service, between June and November.
Tuesday release
Chat transcripts and other documents were released Tuesday by the Sequim School District following a six-week investigation into what administrators called Boushey’s “inappropriate” computer contacts with the girl and other teens, mostly female, near her age.
Boushey resigned earlier this month.
The investigation into the correspondence, which was uncovered in early November, resulted in Boushey being immediately placed on paid administrative leave from his teaching position.
