Plum Superintendent Timothy Glasspool appeared this morning before an Allegheny County grand jury investigating whether school officials knew about sexual relationships between teachers and students and failed to report them.
Mr. Glasspool arrived at the grand jury headquarters at the Dormont Municipal Building shortly before 8 a.m. carrying a banker's box. He left at 9:20 a.m without the box and declined comment.
He was followed a short time later by prosecutor Lisa Mantella from the Allegheny County district attorney's office, Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos, who is supervising the grand jury, and defense attorney Charles Porter Jr. Mr. Porter is said to be representing the superintendent, but the attorney would not confirm that this morning.
Mr. Glasspool becomes the highest-ranking school official to appear before the grand jury during its months-long probe that has so far produced one indictment of a former substitute teacher charged with having sex with a female student.
The grand jury began investigating the goings-on in Plum last spring after two high school teachers -- Jason Cooper and Joseph Ruggieri -- were charged with institutional sexual assault for having sexual relationships with different female students and a third, Drew Zoldak, was charged with intimidating one of the alleged victims.
In September, a fourth teacher -- Michael Cinefra, a former substitute math teacher and baseball coach -- was also charged with institutional sexual in an interim indictment from the grand jury that stated he had a sexual relationship with a student that started in the summer after her freshman year.
Mr. Glasspool joins a group of other district officials and administrators who have appeared before the grand jury. The group includes teacher Dennis Swogger, who made the initial report about the first alleged sexual relationship, former ROTC Instructor Scott Kolar, former school director Joseph Tommarello, business manager Eugene Marracini, teacher Richard Berrott and Plum police Chief Jeffrey Armstrong.
Criminal trials for the accused teachers start next month. A bond revocation hearing is scheduled for this afternoon for Mr. Cooper, who is accused of driving past his alleged victim's house despite a no-contact order and being on house arrest.
Mary Niederberger: mniederberger@post-gazette.com; Jonathan D. Silver: jsilver@post-gazette.com.
First Published: January 14, 2016, 1:09 p.m.