Teaching Assistant Resigns From Edmonds District After Complaints About Sexual Comments

A former Edmonds-Woodway High teaching assistant resigned from his job as an assistant and coach at Mountlake Terrace High earlier this year after complaints about sexual comments he allegedly made to female students, reports the Everett Herald.

Edmonds School District records obtained by the Herald show multiple girls, teachers and staff had complained about the comments, and that the man omitted from his job application that he had resigned from a position in the Northshore School District after similar complaints.

Anthony Williams, who is in his late 30s, could not be reached for comment. But the Herald reported that he denied any wrongdoing in interviews with school district officials, while admitting to some of what he was accused of.

He was hired at Edmonds-Woodway in 2009 as a teaching assistant, and became an assistant at Mountlake Terrace in 2010, along with helping coach football and track.

Documents show Edmonds School District officials were worried the complaints showed a pattern of “grooming behavior” by Williams. They had decided to fire him in January of this year, but he resigned first.

He also resigned in 2008 from the Northshore district, where he was hired in 2006, working as an assistant and coach at Bothell and Inglemoor high schools. Inglemoor High is just north of Kirkland on Finn Hill.

A Northshore district investigator found he had been having inappropriate conversations with students, reportedly sending sexual text messages to one student and calling others “hot” and asking if they were virgins.

For the Herald story, click here.