Driver’s ed teacher jailed for groping 21 female students and filming them doing jumping jacks
A DRIVING teacher has been jailed after he groped dozens of female students and filmed them performing jumping jacks.
Paul Douglas Burdick, 48, from Portland, Oregon, was arrested following complaints from youngsters who reported how he inappropriately touched them.
The teacher had been questioned in 2016 after two teenage girls reported his touching to the police.
Washington County Sheriff’s Office did not press any charges then because they lacked evidence.
But in September last year another woman came forward with similar allegations.
Police then reopened the investigation and traced former students as far back as 2012 — and found more than two dozen of them were alleging sexual abuse.
Burdick was then charged amid accusations he groped driving students during lessons or test drives.
He also would instruct some of the young women to perform jumping jacks to record them on his cellphone, authorities said.
In court he pleaded guilty to six counts of misdemeanor third-degree sex abuse in January, court records show.
He had faced another 15 counts of sex abuse, which prosecutors later dismissed, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
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The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said the abuse occurred between 2012 and 2018 while Burdick taught driving courses at the school’s Willow Creek Center in Hillsboro.
After his arrest Portland Community College fired him.
Burdick was also bishop at the Hillsboro Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He has since been removed from the post.
Three students have also filed a lawsuit against Burdick. They seek $2 million each.
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