Female teacher charged with sex crimes
Posted December 1, 2011 2:40 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LANGLEY (NEWS1130) – She’s been teaching in Langley since the late 1980s and now 57-year-old Deborah Ralph has been charged with sex related offences involving a former student. The accusation dates back 10 years.
Ralph is charged with sexual assault and sexual interference involving a student between December 1998 and June 2001, while she taught at James Kennedy Elementary in Walnut Grove.
RCMP Superintendent Derek Cooke says the boy was once a student of hers, but not at the time of the offences.
“There’s no suggestion that any of the offences happened on school property or during school hours,” he pointed out, but wouldn’t say where or when the alleged sex crimes occured, or if they even took place in Langley.
The victim contacted Mounties last month claiming that he had been sexually assaulted when he was in elementary school.
“These allegations were brought to the attention of the Langley RCMP on November the 8th and Mrs. Ralph was arrested the following day,” he explains.
Ralph was immediately taken off teaching duties by the Langley School District but is still getting paid.
District Superintendent Cheryle Beaumont can’t speak to Ralph’s history as a teacher or to how the school community is reacting. Most recently she was teaching at Langley Fundamental Elementary.
“Her colleagues will be learning of this at the same time the community is learning of it. I can’t speculate but I imagine many people in the community will find this difficult but our first responsibility is to students.”
Police say no one else claiming to be a victim has come forward.
