Paul Conrad is being accused of child porn after witnesses testified that they saw the second-grade teacher was looking at pictures of young females wearing swimming suits, some of them topless, at nearby Mankato State University’s Centennial Library.
Prior to that, Conrad lost his job at Hoover Elementary School in North Mankato, Minn., after rubbing scores of school-age girls’ feet.
The eerie foot-fetish was uncovered in 2007-08 school year when a young student told her mother that she felt uncomfortable being told to take off her shoes and socks and having Conrad massage her sore feet.
Multiple more incidents the subsequent year, according to the Mankato Free Press:
- Teachers raised concerns after seeing students leaving Conrad’s room and going to the bathroom with no shoes on. Those students told the teachers they didn’t have to wear shoes in Conrad’s room.
- Teachers raised concerns again after learning Conrad had provided jeweled flip-flop shoes to girls in his class and the classes of other teachers.
- At least three parents complained to other teachers about Conrad rubbing their daughters’ feet after school.
- A teacher reported seeing a girl giving Conrad a back massage, and a teacher reported seeing Conrad rubbing a female student’s ears that year.
- A teacher also confronted Conrad after seeing him taking pictures of girls’ bare feet during the end-of-the-year picnic.
- During the 2009-10 school year, teachers raised concerns about Conrad because he was joking about “talking to little boys at the urinals.” One teacher told him that was inappropriate and he should use the staff bathroom.
- Multiple students also reported that year that Conrad frequently rubbed their feet or their friends’ feet after school. One student reported every girl in his class had received a foot massage. After seeing students weren’t wearing shoes in class again, a teacher reported he told Conrad the students should be wearing shoes for safety reasons.
- More students reported Conrad had given them foot massages after school during the 2010-11 school year. A teacher also intervened after seeing fourth-grade students hanging on Conrad on the playground. Some of the girls were hitting him on the butt, the suspension letter said. The teacher watched for a while and intervened after Conrad didn’t ask them to stop, the letter said.In August 2011, district administrators sent Conrad a “last chance” letter ordering him to cut out the creepiness or risk losing his job.
According to reports, the incidents of inappropriate contact with young students spanned more than half a decade before Conrad lost his job in 2011. Two years, later he is being charged with child porn.
Conrad was warned that his behavior could have severe consequences.
“[W]e continue to see a disturbing pattern of behavior relating to students’ feet beginning with the 2007-08 school year and occurring each year since that time and this has caused concern,” the letter, which was obtained by the Free Press, says. “Please be advised that this letter serves as your last warning about the matter… Failure to follow the directives or any further incidents of this nature will result in termination of your employment.”
In November of that year, Conrad resigned. The details were not divulged due to privacy laws.
Investigators told the court need a couple more months to examine the computer Conrad was using on that fateful November day before his trial can begin, the Mankato Free Press reported. Conrad’s attorney claims the images his client was looking at weren’t pornographic. Conrad says he was simply looking for jobs.
Conrad won the Golden Apple teaching award from Mankato TV station KEYC in September 2011, two months before his resignation.
