Joshua M. Larson loved handing out coral to his female high school art students.
A detective says the gestures weren’t innocent.
The Williamsport Area High School art teacher gave four female students pieces of coral after returning from vacation as he tried to foster closer relationships with them, but the gifts and things he said and did made them uncomfortable, according to the detective.
“I was just under water thinking about you girls, so I grabbed these,” Larson, 47, told one student as he handed her coral.
The coral gifts and the rest of his “weird” behavior — as one girl described it — made one girl stop attending his class while another stayed away from his study hall. They and other girls felt uncomfortable enough to tell the detective about it, according to an arrest affidavit.
The charges
Lycoming County Detective Loretta A. Badger charged Larson on Tuesday with institutional sexual assault, endangering the welfare of children, unlawful contact with a minor, attempted corruption of minors and harassment.
A magisterial district judge denied Larson bail and ordered him jailed at the county prison.
Efforts to reach attorney Kyle Rude, listed on a court document as Larson’s lawyer, were unsuccessful.
The school district suspended him without pay on March 11, said Taylor Chrisenberry, a district spokesperson.
That day, officials reported Larson to county detectives.
Cases multiply after first report
Over the next week, Badger received six reports from a state hotline for reporting child abuse. They named Larson as the suspect and identified four as victims.
In all, she interviewed 10 students about Larson’s behavior with five forming the basis for the charges.
Larson told one student he loved her and moved her desk closer to him to “help her concentrate and allow him to interact with her more easily because she was more advanced than other students,” according to an arrest affidavit.
Larson rubbed students’ shoulders, rubbing along one girl’s bra strap as he did. He bought them snacks and candy, invited the girl whose desk he moved to serve as a lifeguard with him, and invited at least two girls to visit his apartment, complimenting their appearances, the affidavit says.
Keep the coral secret
He asked the girl whose desk he moved closer to keep the coral a secret because he did not want other students “to become jealous.”
As he walked away from her, he turned around and spoke to her.
“In all honesty, you’re the only reason I’m still alive right now,” he said, according to the affidavit.
He exempted one victim from assignments and bought her and her friend “a bunch of snacks ... because he felt bad eating in front of us,” the affidavit says.
He said he could get them anything else they wanted.
“Don’t worry girls, I got money,” he said.
He invited them to watch movies at his apartment and asked this victim to turn around so he could see writing on the back of her jeans.
“That is so cute,” he told her.
Regularly, the victim said, Larson told students he loved them and referred to them as mature.
He shared personal details
With another victim, he talked about his pending divorce and personal details of his life, according to the affidavit. He stood close to her or leaned over a table when they talked. He complimented her artwork.
“Everything that I say to you is a compliment and it’s just because I love you so much, I just love you,” he said, according to the affidavit.
Sometimes, he rubbed her shoulders as he complimented her and would “kind of like play with my bra a little bit ... like really hard.
'You can’t just tease me like that'
“I don’t know, it was weird,” she told Badger. “Anytime that I did not do something that he would like, he would say, ‘Oh, you don’t love me.’”
He invited one victim to decorate his apartment and “pressured her to show him personal photographs stored on her phone,” which made her uncomfortable.
As she scrolled past one picture, he persisted in wanting to see it.
“He was like, ‘You gotta show me. You can’t just tease me like that,” the girl told Badger.
The girl stopped going to his study hall.
Unwanted rubbing
The other victim reported Larson rubbing her arm with his finger.
“I love this bracelet you have here,” he said.
A few times, he took her phone and went into the hallway to listen to a song on her phone. Other times, he positioned himself close to her, creating uncomfortable situations, according to the affidavit.
“I would love for you to, you know, use me here. I would love to be able to talk shop with you,” he said, according to the affidavit.
Larson's preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 4 at 2 p.m.
