Arlington Private School Principal Charged With Rape of 14 Year Old Student | News | Q13.com | KCPQ TV

Arlington Private School Principal Charged With Rape of 14 Year Old Student

Principal's family speaks out in his defense

Roxeanne Vainuku, Q13 FOX News Reporter

July 23, 2008

ARLINGTON — Startling accusations out of Arlington that a private school principal had sexual contact with one of his 14 year old students.

A note on the door at the Highland Christian School in Arlington hints there's trouble, but it's court documents that spell out the shocking details of what prosecutors say happened behind the school's doors.

The principal, 37 year old Mark Brown, is charged with rape of a child for allegedly having sexual contact with one of Highland's fourteen year old students.

Court documents says investigators were looking into text messages from Brown that possibly encouraged the fourteen year old girl to run away from home. It reads, "some of these encouraged ** to run away from home and promised that the defendant would provide her a place to stay if she did."

The documents also accuse Brown of letting the girl stay at the school without telling authorities she was there.

It says, "the defendant had prepared a little used room for her at the school by putting a hide a bed and TV in it for her."

Then this week the accusations deepened. "She disclosed that she had had sex with her principal while she was staying at the school," says Rebecca Hover of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.

Brown went to jail--charged with child rape.

The Highland Christian School Board is not allowed to speak about the case, but so far the group hasn't taken any action against Brown.

And numerous parents are stepping up in the principal's defense.

Joe and Faye Brown, Mark Brown's own parents, say the only thing their son tried to do in this case was the right thing. "He got involved in this situation trying to help this young girl who called him and his pastor," says Joe Brown, Mark Brown's father.

The Browns say their son helped build highland Christian Schools from the ground up--they say tearing it down with such a heinous crime is something he would never do. "He just would not throw away his career, his life, his passion for this Highland Christian School," says Brown's mother, Faye.

The Browns have confidence their son will be cleared of the charges against him, but they fear nothing will ever fully clear his name. "When this is all said and done, who is going to put him back together again?" questions Brown's father.

The Browns went to the Snohomish County Jail Wednesday night where they planned to use their property as collateral to post Brown's 100-thousand dollar bail.