On December 17, 2012, the Fairfield, Connecticut Police arrested Jeffrey Mark Schare, math teacher and boys swim and dive coach at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut on multiple counts of sexual assault against two girls ages 12 and 8, according to court records and the Fairfield Police Department. The police department stated they had been investigating Mr. Schare since October of this year, when the alleged assaults occurred.
Mr. Schare is charged under Connecticut Criminal Statutes 53a-70, 53a-72, 53a-73a, and 21(a)(1). These charges include 2 counts of engaging in sexual intercourse with another person under the age of 13 in the first degree, 1 count of compelling another person to submit to sexual contact in the third degree, 2 counts of sexual contact with another person under the age of 13 in the fourth degree, and 2 counts of risk of injury to a child.
The Connecticut Post is reporting that Schare has confessed to some sort of inappropriate behavior, though that does not necessarily mean he will plead guilty to all counts.
According to court records, the counts of sexual intercourse occurred on October 1, 2012 and the other counts of sexual contact occurred on October 13, 2012. From the timeline, it appears that the victims reported Mr. Schare’s alleged sexual assaults soon after there occurrence. This reporting allowed the police to immediately begin an investigation and arrest Mr. Schare.
Mr. Schare has been released on $150,000 bond and his arraignment is scheduled for January 22, 2013. While Mr. Schare was the high school boys’ swim and dive coach for the past 7 years, Susan Woessner of USA Swimming tells us he has not been a member of USA Swimming since 2006.
Schare was formerly the coach of the Hamden/North Haven Swim Team (the USA-S sanctioned Sea Dragons team, not the YMCA one), as well as the Omni Swim Program based out of Yale, according to his profile on the Staple website. He was arrested in his hometown of Farfield, where he grew up and went to high school, graduating in 1987.
The Connecticut high school season just began in the last week and runs through mid-March. The Staples boys placed 12th at last year’s State Championship meet.