Seattle private school coach charged with child porn in B.C.

SEATTLE — Frank Magusin is Head of School at The Bush School.

The buck stops at him and he’s facing it head-on.

“One of our employees was arrested in Canada. He’s been charged," Magusin said. "I think it’s been hard on people to sort of feel betrayed by what’s been alleged about what’s happened so it’s been hard on the community."

The employee is identified as 43-year old Jason Paur.

Paur been a cross-country skiing coach, part-time substitute teacher, field trip planner and chaperone at The Bush School for more than a decade.

Paur, and 11 students on the cross-country ski team, headed to the Silver Star Resort in British Columbia this past week for an annual field trip.

On Tuesday, Paur was arrested at the lodge where the team was staying, accused of putting a video camera in a room occupied by female students.

Wednesday, he was charged with possession of child pornography, accessing child pornography, voyeurism, and breaking and entering.

“You can have a pretty nice teacher or counselor or coach or whatever around the kids and you have no idea,” The Bush School Parent Adriana Garone said.

Administrators sent out letters to parents explaining what had happened.

Most were upset but fully supportive of the school.

“It’s unpredictable.  I don’t think it’s the school’s fault at all.  I think it is something that can happen anywhere at any time.  I think it’s is disturbing and upsetting that there are people like that around, but they are everywhere unfortunately,” Garone said.

Paur underwent criminal background check just two years ago and it came back clean.

Along with his work at The Bush School, Paur, from West Seattle, is also a well-known freelance writer, contributing to Wired.com, NPR and National Geographic.

But it’s his time at The Bush School that is now under close scrutiny. He planned and chaperoned an annual trip many times before.

Parents insist their trust is well placed in school administrators.

“We have all kinds of policies and procedures in place that you hope keeps this kind of thing from happening but stuff will happen that you can’t always control.  We’ll go back and continue to review our policies to make sure they’re ones that keep our kids safe,” Maguson said.

Paur remains jailed tonight in British Columbia.

He’s due back in court next week and while he will face charges there but we now know The United States Attorney’s Office in Seattle is also on the case because of its international status.

It is as yet unclear whether Paur will face any charges in the U.S.