Crime & Safety

Update: Ex-Teacher Charged With Rape Taught at U City

The suspect, Donald Ingerson, worked as a high school teacher at five or six school districts in St. Louis County.

A former St. Louis County high school teacher suspected of raping a student in the mid-1970s taught at .

According to Communications Director Shantana Stewart, Donald Ingerson was employed by the from 1976 until 1981.

"He taught biology and coached football and wrestling at University City High School," Stewart said. "We received no reports of him having inappropriate contact with students during his tenure here."

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Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch said Tuesday that Ingerson approached police because he thought he could not be charged in the case.

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Donald Ingerson, 67, is charged with one count of rape and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy.

He taught at five or six school districts in St. Louis County beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the 1990s, McCullough said Tuesday during a news conference at the  in Clayton. McCulloch declined to identify the districts, though he said districts where the suspect worked have been notified and asked to contact police should additional victims come forward.

Florissant Patch has confirmed that . 

Rockwood School District Chief Communications Officer Kim Cranston also confirmed for Patch that Ingerson was employed as a science teacher at  in  from 1969-1971. During that time he also served as an assistant coach for football, wrestling, baseball, track and field.

A KSDK-TV Tweet Tuesday afternoon indicated Ingerson was a former teacher and coach at Ritenour and McCluer schools.

Two victims, both students at the time of the incidents, have been identified so far, though McCulloch said his work in similar cases leads him to think there are others. Ingerson is suspected of having had multiple sexual encounters with both, McCulloch said, the first between September 1974 and January 1976, and the second between Jan. 1, 1995 and Nov. 17, 1996.

McCulloch said he thinks the encounters happened at different locations outside of school grounds.

In early June, Ingerson called the  to say he had something to discuss, McCullough said. He spoke with investigators.

Ingerson, who lives in Ely, MN, near the Canadian border, arrived in St. Louis on Sunday and repeated statements about the sexual encounters to police on Monday, McCulloch said. At that time, McCulloch said, Ingerson was arrested.

Ingerson did not appear to realize that the statute of limitations had not expired, McCulloch said.

Both victims have been contacted and have been cooperative. Police previously had not heard of either the victims or Ingerson, McCulloch said. 

McCulloch said Ingerson moved to Minnesota sometime after he retired from teaching.

He is being held in the St. Louis County Jail on a $300,000 cash-only bond. People who think they might have been victims of a sexual crime are asked to call St. Louis County detectives at 314-880-2341.


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