Former Chesterton High School teacher arrested, charged with child seduction
CHESTERTON, Ind. (WISH) — A Chesterton High School teacher was fired and later arrested after a former student accused him of an inappropriate relationship while she was a student.
According to a news release by Superintendent Chip Pettit, the former student provided information to the Duneland School Corp. about an alleged inappropriate previous relationship between herself and a Chesterton High School instructional assistant, Dakota McCoy, that occurred more than five years ago.
After receiving the information, Chesterton police launched an investigation and McCoy, an English teacher at Chesterton High School, was immediately removed from the campus and later was fired.
According to court documents, McCoy started engaging in a inappropriate relationship with the student during her sophomore year at Chesterton High School. The former student indicated to a school official that McCoy encouraged her and other students to smoke cigarettes while they were still students at the high school. McCoy provided her with alcohol on occasions and he pressured her to do sexual things while she was still a student.
The former student told Chesterton police she had a sexual relationship with McCoy that started her sophomore year in 2016 and lasted through her senior year in 2018, ending her freshman year of college in 2019. She reported approximately 50 encounters between her and McCoy while he was working as a speech and debate coach/teacher at the high school. She says she first met McCoy when he was a coach for the debate team at the high school.
According to court documents, McCoy would hang out after debate meets with the debate students, usually on Saturdays. The former student explained that McCoy would hang out with the students after 9 p.m. and give them alcohol and cigarettes. The former student said McCoy at times would take her home last after giving other students rides home.
The former student said McCoy communicated with her through Snapchat and WhatsApp because McCoy was worried about anyone finding out about his relationship with her, and these types of apps were harder to track.
The former student stated she had sex with McCoy for the first time at a house party in Chesterton. She stated she became extremely intoxicated from drinking alcohol and, after going to the bathroom to urinate, McCoy entered the bathroom, too, and they had sex.
The former student also said she had sex twice with McCoy inside his car.
She said the majority of her sexual encounters with McCoy happened at his mother’s house in Valparaiso. All of these encounters occurred while she was still a student.
At the time of these crimes, McCoy was over 18 years of age and the former student was at least 16 years of age, but under 18 years of age.
McCoy was arrested and charged with three counts of child seduction and one count of obstruction of justice.
Chesterton is located in Porter County and is about a half-hour east of Gary.