A former associate principal at Evergreen High School was sentenced Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court to 300 days on work release for having sex with a student at the school.
Sadie R. Pritchard, 44, pleaded guilty in February to second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. She was arrested in June 2018 on suspicion of three counts of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor.
The victim told police May 22, 2018, about having “sexual intercourse with (the) vice principal, Sadie Pritchard, at Evergreen High School,” an affidavit of probable cause reads.
Judge David Gregerson accepted the agreed-upon recommendation for work release, which attorneys on both sides said was the result of months of negotiations. Work release is a partial confinement program.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes said the victim did not respond to communications about attending or wanting to speak during Pritchard’s sentencing.
According to the affidavit, Pritchard started following the student on Instagram around October 2017 and offered to help with homework. The contact turned flirtatious, leading to the exchange of nude photos.
Starting in December 2018 and lasting roughly six weeks, Pritchard and the student had three or four sexual encounters during school hours in her office, the affidavit says. Other encounters took place in what the affidavit referred to as a testing room.
Pritchard also gave the student upwards of $1,000, according to the affidavit. The student denied that the payments were made for sex or to prevent disclosing the encounters.
The victim reportedly ended the relationship after thinking about it and becoming mad, the affidavit said.
Emails found by the Evergreen Public Schools human resources director showed that Pritchard would request the student be pulled from class and report to her office, according to the affidavit. She also asked teachers to change grades to a pass/fail status in an effort to improve the student’s GPA.
When given the chance to speak in court Tuesday, Pritchard said her attorney Jon McMullen summed up her thoughts well. McMullen said his client had been doing everything possible to obtain work release and stay employed while her case was pending. She needs to be out of jail to care of her kids, he argued.
Pritchard told the judge she is working as a traffic control flagger in Portland.
Generally, defendants sentenced to work release must undergo an eligibility screening for the program within a day. However, the attorneys noted that, to the best of their knowledge, the program is not currently fully operational due to COVID-19. Pritchard was instructed to present herself for the screening and to follow the guidance of the program’s staff.
Gregerson said if the work-release program is unavailable, Pritchard may have to serve the sentence in jail. Pritchard responded that she understood. She also must register as a sex offender for 10 years, according to Hayes.
