Teacher-teen affair sparks law inquiry

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A former U.S. Attorney told 24 Hour News 8 common sense says the Saranac school district should have stepped in when a teacher and a student had a sexual relationship in 2010, but the attorney thinks state law should be more clear.

Krag Sanford's Kent County sentencing was adjourned Tuesday until later this month. The judge approved the delay until Sanford's case in Ionia County is resolved.

In May, Sanford pleaded no contest to two counts of distribution of sexually explicit visual or verbal matter to a child in Ionia County one day after pleading no contest to accosting a minor for immoral purposes in Kent County.

The former Saranac High School teacher allegedly had an affair with a female student who was 16 in the summer of 2010, when police said the relationship began. The student is now pregnant with Sanford's child. The two filed for a marriage license in March.

Sanford may be the reason state lawmakers re-examine the state's mandatory reporting law.

State Senator Judy Emmons (R-Sheridan) told 24 Hour News 8 a Target 8 investigation will lead to further consideration of the law in August.

"There is a subjectivity," former U.S. Attorney John Smietanka said Monday. "If they were held back from (reporting), is it because our laws were not properly drafted."

Smietanka said the phrase "reasonable cause to suspect" creates the subjectivity.

The state's mandatory report law states any teacher or administrator with a reasonable suspicion of child abuse must contact police or the Department of Human Services within 72 hours.

Several examples show school officials knew about a relationship between Sanford and the student.

Sar anac High School Principal Beth Simpson told police she helped her friend -- Sanford's wife -- check online to find the hundreds of phone calls from Sanford to the teen. Police records show he called the girl 464 times.

Simpson told police back in 2010 she didn't feel there was enough evidence to call police.

"It certainly seems that there was evidence that would require a moral requirement to report them," Smietanka said.

Maury Geiger is the current superintendent at Saranac Community Schools. He replaced former superintendent Jeanette Adams. Geiger said the district performed its own investigation, but had no proof on inappropriate contact.