Former Eugene teacher arrested on sex abuse charges

Curtis Buell

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By Carla Castano

We first told you about a former Churchill High School teacher who was arrested for sex abuse on Friday. Today we're learning more about Curtis Buell.

Friday police out of Camas, Washington arrested Buell on 18 counts of sex abuse. A grand jury indicted Buell on the charges last week.

We were first tipped off to this story back in October, that's when Buell was placed on paid administrative leave while allegations were investigated.

Then, with a quick Internet search, we were able to find Buell's my space page just before it was taken down.

While it may seem crazy and unreal for a teacher to describe himself as influential and sexy on the my space page where he communicated with students, here Curtis Buell writes directly to them, saying "hey kids Uncle Curti back again."

We also found Buell had 324 friends, many appeared to be teenage girls posed provocatively and some were students. But Buell's myspace page is only a small part of the evidence police have collected.

Detective Ted Williams with the Eugene Police Department tells us, "victims were forced one way or another to do something they didn't want to do."

25 year old Buell will be brought back to Eugene later this week. He was arraigned on 18 counts of sex abuse Monday in a Clark County courtroom.

While Eugene 4J School District officials say legally they can't comment on the case, they say Eugene students are safe.

Kelly McIver, a school district spokesperson says, "any employee that is going to have any contact with children goes through a background check through law enforcement agencies."

Police say Buell is one who seems to have slipped through the cracks. There is a lot of information police won't share because it could compromise the case. But they tell us there could be other victims at Churchill as well as at North Eugene High and Madison Middle School where Buell was a student-teacher. They offer these tips to parents. "Monitor cell phone usage and have access to my space accounts," Williams.

Buell resigned from Churchill January 31st, 2007. Churchill students we spoke with, who knew Buell, said he was an amazing teacher and they were surprised to hear he was being charged with the crimes.

Any students or parents with information are asked to call Eugene police at 682-5175.
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