Docs: Tipton teacher and student admit to sex in school office, teacher’s home

TIPTON COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) — Newly released court documents show a former Tipton High School teacher and student admitted to having sex “dozens” of times at the high school and at the teacher’s home during what authorities allege was a nearly two-year relationship.

Beau Engle, a former shop teacher is facing  preliminary charges of child seduction.

He was fired by the school district last week but has not been formally charged in the case despite admitting in these newly release court records that he had a sexual relationship with a female student. Engle, 37, was originally arrested on April 13 for 10 counts of child seduction. 

On April 11, a concerned parent contacted 24-Hour News 8 regarding the alleged relationship. The television station then immediately contacted investigators with the information that came into our newsroom.

“A charging decision will not be made until we receive information back from the forensic exam of the phones,” an investigator from the Tipton County prosecutor’s office wrote to 24 Hour News 8 in response to questions about the case.

Police sought a search warrant last week to exam both the student’s and Engle’s cell phones. The court documents show the student admitted that she and Engle began a sexual relationship in the fall of her junior year, in 2015. At the time, the student would’ve been under the age of 18.

The court record alleges that the student told authorities that “she and Engle had sex at Engle’s home in Howard County and several times in Engle’s office at Tipton High School.” The court record also notes that dozens of these encounters took place in Engle’s office at Tipton High School.

The student went on to say Engle had told her he divorced his wife so he could be with her.

The documents go onto explain that during Engle’s interview with police, he admitted the underage student’s mother had “grown suspicious” about the amount of time Engle spent with her daughter, including how frequently they exchanged text messages. Engle told police after the girl’s mother blocked him from contacting the girl, he began using a different application to text her so that the mother wouldn’t know about it, according to the court documents.

The student admitted to using her cell phone to send nude photos to Engle during their relationship. Police had sought the search warrant last week because they wanted to see what images may be on both her and Engle’s phones.

Engle confirmed to police that the information provided by the underage student — both the sexual contact and the sending of nude photos of the girl — was true.

Tipton County Superintendent Kevin Emsweller told I-Team 8 that the district investigated allegations that Engle was becoming “too friendly” with the student in January of 2016, which would’ve been during the same school year in which the student told police she and Engle were engaged in a sexual relationship.

Emsweller said the principal investigated and found no misconduct.

“”If we knew back then what we know today, different steps would have been taken . We had no evidence that any wrongdoing was going on at that time. The teacher was becoming too friendly. We felt he needed to back off a little bit. That’s the action we took at that time.”

The action taken at the time, Emsweller said, was to tell Engle not to limit his contact with the student.

I-Team 8 asked Emsweller if Engle had been asked directly if he was having a sexual relationship with the student.

Emsweller said: “Not necessarily sexual relations but he was asked what the relationship was and he denied any wrongdoing.”

When the allegations and police investigation first surfaced, I-Team 8 spoke to the Department of Child Services. A spokesman suggested that school district officials should have contacted authorities sooner and should not have investigated the matter internally.

Emsweller said the district is reviewing its safety procedures and may beef up security in wake of Engle’s arrest.Never miss another Facebook post from WISH-TV