Teacher Charged With Rape Didn't Work at Bayless, Lindbergh or Hancock

When news broke that a 67-year-old former St. Louis-area teacher was charged with raping his students, everyone had the same question: Did it happen here?

Police said Ingerson worked in five or six St. Louis County school districts, but they didn't say which ones. Only recently have school districts like , , and stepped forward to say they found records of Ingerson's employment at their schools—a difficult task since the alleged attacks have sometimes pre-dated electronic records.

So Affton-Shrewsbury Patch checked with local school districts to find out the answer to the question on many parents' minds: Did it happen here?

The answer? Probably not.

Bayless, Hancock Place and Lindbergh school districts all say they have checked their records and found no evidence that Ingerson ever worked at their schools. 

Patch is still waiting to hear from Affton School District.

Ingerson, 67, is charged with one count of rape and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy. He taught in St. Louis County beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the 1990s.

Two victims, both students at the time of the incidents, have been identified so far, though Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCullough said his work in similar cases leads him to think there are others. Both victims are female. Ingerson is suspected of having had multiple sexual encounters with both, McCullough said, the first between September 1974 and January 1976, and the second between Jan. 1, 1995 and Nov. 17, 1996.

McCullough said he thinks the encounters happened at different locations outside of school grounds.

In early June, Ingerson called the  to say he had something to discuss, McCullough said. He spoke with investigators.

Ingerson, who lives in Ely, MN, near the Canadian border, arrived in St. Louis on Sunday and repeated statements about the sexual encounters to police on Monday, McCullough said. At that time, McCullough said, Ingerson was arrested.

Ingerson did not appear to realize that the statute of limitations had not expired, McCullough said.

Both victims have been contacted and have been cooperative. Police previously had not heard of either the victims or Ingerson, McCullough said. 

McCullough said Ingerson moved to Minnesota sometime after he retired from teaching.

He is being held in the St. Louis County Jail on a $300,000 cash-only bond.

People who think they might have been victims of a sexual crime are asked to call St. Louis County detectives at 314-880-2341.