A substitute bus driver in the Issaquah School District, Andrew Bernard Rekdahl, of Carnation, was arrested Thursday on child pornography charges, King 5 reports.
A search warrant was served on Rekdahl's home and though he was not home when agents arrived, they allegedly discovered 194 images of suspected child porn on a laptop found in his bedroom.
The man allegedly admitted later to to downloading and sharing child porn on the Internet and was arrested, King 5 said in its report. He was charged with possession and distribution of child porn.
Issaquah Schools Superintendent Dr. Steve Rasmussen said the district will publish a list of specific routes that Rekdahl covered later today at this link: Please look for it online later this afternoon.
The district also is reviewing footage from the routes to confirm appropriate behavior by the driver and asks parents who have concerns after talking to their children to email DriverConcerns@issaquah.wednet.edu. Rasmussen said all evidence and indication at this time leads the district to believe that nothing inappropriate occurred during his work time.
Rasmussen sent the following letter to parents this afternoon:
Dear Issaquah School District Community,
Before you hear this information on the news, I wanted to let you know that one of our substitute bus drivers was arrested by Homeland Security yesterday on possible child pornography charges. While this is obviously an incredibly serious allegation, officials have told me that there is no evidence at this time to believe any inappropriate or illegal activities occurred while he was working. Since the arrest, we have been working in the administration to confirm that.
As is a customary procedure, this driver was cleared through the district’s mandatory state and federal background checks before he started driving last November; both accurately showed a clean record. We have never received complaints or concerns about this driver during his short employment.
Since the allegations, we have immediately put a stop to assigning the driver any future substitute jobs. We are also investigating footage of him driving his routes, and we have confirmed that he never activated or used his employee email.
Because this is a personnel issue, I will not be able to disclose many of the private details about this employee. You may contact the Western District of Washington U.S. Attorney’s Office,206-553-4110, for more information about this case.
Our foremost concern is making sure we cooperate with the investigation in any way possible and confirming—as we have been—that this individual’s alleged criminal behaviors were completely separate from his employment with us. At this point, every indication shows that this is the case.
Sincerely,
Dr. Steve Rasmussen,
Superintendent
