Principal accused of sexually assaulting student in 1988

The principal of a Christian school in Phoenix was placed on administrative leave last month for allegedly sexually assaulting a student decades earlier in Canada, officials said.

The Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists placed Anthony Oucharek, who previously led Glenview Adventist Academy, on leave on January 29 after church officials learned of the allegations he faces in Winnipeg, where a former student told police several years ago that he had victimized her between 1988 and 1990.

“The survivor, who is now an adult, came forward to police in 2019 and provided information regarding incidents that occurred when they were a minor,” Winnipeg police told Newsweek in a statement Thursday. “The warrant relates to charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation.”

Oucharek, 63, is “aware of the warrant” and has been “encouraged to return” to Canada, Winnipeg police said.

Oucharek declined to comment when reached by Newsweek on Thursday. He also refused to indicate if he had hired an attorney or if he intends to surrender in Canada, where he previously lived and worked.

“I’ve been advised not to talk,” he said.

Oucharek had served as principal at the private K-8 school in northwest Phoenix since 2023.

“With a student body of about 150 great kids and a staff of dedicated teachers, Glenview offers a great education where Christ is at the center of every subject,” Oucharek’s bio on the Glendale Seventh-day Adventist Church’s website read prior to being removed Thursday.

The Arizona Republic revealed Oucharek’s alleged sordid past earlier Thursday. He acknowledged being placed on leave after sex crimes detectives in Winnipeg contacted church officials to demand that he surrender.

Oucharek said the former student tried to get him removed from his role as principal at a North Dakota church school in 2019, but church officials did not acquiesce, the newspaper reported.

Oucharek’s years of service and the Christian ideal of “forgiveness” outweighed his accuser’s age and the nature of her allegations, he and wife Doreen told the newspaper.

Church administrators then allowed Oucharek to continue leading the school in North Dakota for another four years before he was hired in Phoenix. The handling of Oucharek’s case underscores the lack of strict private school regulations in Arizona, including law enforcement background checks required of public-school employees that may have alerted officials to the 2019 warrant, the Arizona Republic reported.

Jeff Rogers, education superintendent of the Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, could not say why background checks missed Oucharek’s warrant but promised an internal review and potential hiring reforms, according to the newspaper.

Parents of students at the school were notified about Oucharek’s arrest warrant days after the Arizona Republic contacted the Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

“While the alleged actions took place outside the United States more than 35 years ago, conference officials immediately placed him on administrative leave pending additional potential actions by legal authorities,” Rogers told the outlet in a statement.

The Arizona conference first learned of the arrest warrant when Canadian authorities contacted Glenview Adventist Academy in January, Rogers told the Republic, adding that his office is conducting a review to determine how the accusations were missed when Oucharek was hired three years ago.

Oucharek and his wife, who previously worked as an administrative assistant at the Phoenix school, said they were unaware of the arrest warrant or that his former student had filed a complaint with Winnipeg police. The longtime educator had never been accused of criminal wrongdoing, they said.

The Ouchareks spoke to the newspaper for roughly 40 minutes and the accused educator neither confirmed nor denied having sex with his former student. Doreen Oucharek refused to answer questions about the accusations but later denied them during a follow-up call, the Republic reported.

“These are just allegations,” Doreen Oucharek said. “There’s no truth to them.”

The assaults allegedly occurred between 1988 and 1990 as Oucharek, who was then in his mid-20s, taught a student in her early teens at Red River Valley Junior Academy in Winnipeg. He faces two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation. The legal age of sexual consent in Canada at the time was 14, Winnipeg police said.

Detectives have said Oucharek needs to return to Canada no later than June. But he’s physically unable to travel and scheduled to undergo brain surgery this spring, according to his wife.

Oucharek, who was born in Canada, shared some of his background on the Dakoka Adventist Academy Blog after he was named principal of the school in 2017. He previously held positions at schools in British Columbia, as well as Pasco, Washington, and Orlando, Florida.

“My belief system is that every person can learn, though I recognize that by high school, individual choice plays big into learning,” Oucharek said. “As a teacher, I want to help students succeed.”

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