Published on: Thursday, February 28, 2013

By Shannon McHale

ROCKVILLE, Md.—Montgomery County has yet to set a court date in the case of Timothy Vincent Krupica, a Frederick man accused of sexually abusing his students at Meadow Hall Elementary School.

Police arrested Krupica, 30, last Thursday after two 11-year-old female students at Meadow Hall Elementary School reported Krupica sexually abused them.

The two girls approached school staff with the allegations and were interviewed by the Family Crimes Division of the Montgomery County Police. Both girls told investigators that Krupica touched them inappropriately during school hours, according to charging documents filed with the Montgomery County District Court. Krupica allegedly sexually touched both girls over their clothing multiple times, and forced them to sexually touch him over his clothing as well.

Krupica, a fifth grade teacher at the Rockville school, is being charged with two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and four other counts of sex offenses after the police investigation revealed he had abused both girls on several occasions since the school year began.

“As soon as the allegations were brought to the attention of the school the police and child protective services were contacted,” said Dana Tofig, spokesperson for Montgomery County Public Schools. The school system is conducting its own investigation in addition to the ongoing police work. Krupica was released on a $100,000 bond on Friday following a bond review hearing.

This isn’t the first time a Meadow Hall teacher has been accused of abuse. Last October, Jeremy Earle Brown II, a special education teacher at the school, solicited undercover police who were posing online as 14-year-old girls. Brown was convicted of sexual solicitation of a minor and is now a registered sex offender.

Just eight months earlier, former Meadow Hall kindergarten teacher Susan Burke faced seven misdemeanor assault charges for allegedly choking her first grade students at Greencastle Elementary School in Silver Spring. A jury acquitted Burke of all seven counts after a trial by jury in which her former first-graders testified against her. Burke was later acquitted of the two felony counts of child abuse she also faced.

Krupica is 30-years-old and has worked at Meadow Hall since 2009, when he was hired by Montgomery County Public Schools. Prior to working at Meadow Hall, he taught at Dranesville Elementary School in Fairfax County, Va. The county placed Krupica on paid administrative leave following his arrest, and the investigation of his case is still pending. Online court records have not yet named Krupica’s attorney or displayed a court date.