In a letter sent to parents Wednesday, school district officials said that an employee faced “serious criminal charges,” without naming Richards, and that they are confident there are “sufficient grounds” to fire him.
Norristown police were called to Blockson on Monday morning after the girl reported Richards to administrators there, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
In an interview, the girl said that Richards had been looking at her in a way that made her uncomfortable, and she decided to record her interaction with him on her cell phone when he called her up to his desk during class.
The video shows that Richards had typed out a text message in Spanish using Google Translate and placed his phone on his desk for the girl to read, the affidavit said.
In the message, Richards tells the girl that he is “very nervous” and says he would like to kiss her “at least 2 times in Washington.” The girl and her classmates were scheduled to attend a field trip to the city on Tuesday, and Richards was a chaperone for the trip.
“If you say no, that is ok, you’re not any less beautiful. … You don’t need to tell me now unless you know the answer,” Richards wrote in his message, according to the affidavit. He urged the girl to give him an answer before the bus arrived in Washington.
The girl later told police the message shocked her. She said she didn’t know what to do, because she didn’t expect to hear that kind of language from an adult. Months earlier, around Christmas, Richards had asked for her address and then personally delivered a gift to her there, hugging her before leaving, according to the affidavit.
Later Monday, Richards consented to have his cell phone searched by investigators. They found the original message seen in the girl’s video, as well as a second message to her in which he apologized, saying his words “came out all wrong.”
Richards, in his second message, wrote that his heart “skips a beat” when he sees the girl and stares at her without meaning to.
“I wonder what you [sic] lips taste like, and I hope to god there’s a chance for me to find out,” he wrote, according to the affidavit. “I don’t know what else to say besides I think you’re amazing.”
If you have any information about this case or any inappropriate behavior by John Richards, please contact Norristown Police.
Manly, Stewart & Finaldi has represented hundreds of children who were sexually assaulted by teachers in schools . We secured a settlement of $140 million on behalf of 81 child sexual abuse victims at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. This was the largest child sexual abuse settlement by a public school district in history. We currently represent more than 100 victims of Johnstown pediatrician Johnny Barto . We are also the lead attorneys representing Olympic athletes and victims of former US Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Team Doctor Larry Nassar and secured $890 million in settlements for our clients. In each of these cases we have helped victims and families get justice by conducting a thorough investigation of the organization and the school In many cases we have discovered that administrators and executives know that the perpetrator was a danger to children and either did nothing or actively covered up the crimes.
