PLATTE COUNTY, Mo. (KCTV) – A substitute teacher who serves as an assistant football coach at Park Hill South High School has been charged with attempting sexual contact with a student.
Platte County prosecutors say Dillon D. Thomas allegedly asked a 17-year-old student to perform a sexual act in February.
Charges were filed against Thomas on May 31 following an investigation by the Platte County Sheriff’s Department and Missouri’s Children’s Division.
Thomas was a substitute teacher and assistant football coach. Court documents said the victim told authorities she first met Thomas while at a volleyball practice.
Court documents allege Thomas contacted her on Instagram later in the season and told her she was attractive and that he wished she wasn’t in high school. In February, a probable cause document alleged Thomas asked if he was able to take the girl out to eat after hearing she’d broken up with her boyfriend.
The victim said Thomas “asked her if she was a senior and how old she was,” court documents said. The victim told Thomas she was a 17-year-old junior and he admitted he maybe shouldn’t be talking to her, the court documents said.
Later in the conversation, the victim told authorities Thomas became more inappropriate and Thomas asked her to perform a sex act.
Thomas eventually told the victim people knew they had been talking and instructed her to “delete everything.”
The charge against Thomas is a misdemeanor. He faces up to one year in jail if convicted. Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said there was no evidence Thomas had any sexual contact with the student.
“Still, any allegation of a teacher even attempting to have sexual contact with a student is a very serious matter. We rely on teachers to keep young people safe, and any potential violation of that trusted relationship is disturbing.”
The Park Hill School District said the district was aware of a misdemeanor charge against Thomas and passed along concern regarding him to the Sheriff’s Office and Children’s Division at the time the concern was presented.
A district spokesperson said Thomas was an assistant football coach at Park Hill South in the fall of 2023 and was a substitute teacher in March and April of 2024.
“He was an at-will employee and is no longer employed by Park Hill,” the district spokesperson told KCTV.
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