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WILKES-BARRE — School district officials are expected to take the next step today toward firing a suspended dean who was convicted earlier this year of having sex with a student, according to the district solicitor.
Stephen Stahl, 48, of Hunlock Creek, has been suspended from his position as Dean of Students at Coughlin High School since Feb. 7, 2014 — one week before his arrest on a corruption of minors charge — and faces termination as a result of his conviction.
Wilkes-Barre Area School District Solicitor Ray Wendolowski said Monday that administrators are likely to take action today in moving for Stahl’s dismissal, after which he will be afforded a hearing before being formally terminated.
Twitter account
The pending discipline also comes one day after school board officials were made aware of a “Coughlin Wrestling” Twitter account, under which someone posted messages of support for the convicted former teacher and wrestling coach — as well as disparaging remarks about his victim — under the online handle @CHSWrestleClub.
Wendolowski said he would be looking into a cessation of the account’s use of Coughlin’s name, however the page was inaccessible as of Monday evening.
Attempts to access the page Monday night were met by a message that it does not exist, although it had been visible earlier in the day.
The account operator claimed in posts made as recently as March 1 to be Stahl, and on Dec. 23 the user posted a picture of Stahl and his family beneath the words, “We wish a happy and safe holiday to everyone.”
Attempts to reach Stahl for comment Monday were unsuccessful.
‘Free Stahl’
More recent posts on the page included the hashtag #freestahl, and several tweets made negative references to a “home wrecker.”
“Some women need to be honest, and put Home Wrecker as their occupation on their Facebook page,” one tweet read.
At least one post seemed to reference the victim more directly, recalling a snippet of testimony in which she said Stahl occasionally brought her muffins at school.
User @CHSWrestleClub wrote, “I hear girls from (the victim’s hometown) do it for muffins lol.”
Before its removal from Twitter, the account had made more than 600 posts. While the poster made no direct reference to Stahl’s trial, posting seemed to decline in frequency during that time.
Posts made between Jan. 13 and 16 made only vague wrestling references.
A tweet timestamped at 6:02 a.m., Jan. 13, mentioned waiting for a whistle to blow, while later posts made reference to a “take down.”
Then on Jan. 16 — the day Stahl testified — the account posted, “Match is going into 3rd period time to step up.”
‘I let you all down’
Hours later, shortly before the jury’s verdict was officially rendered, the account made its final cryptic post of the trial week.
“The match is over. I am sorry I let you all down. Remember I am proud of you,” @CHSWrestleClub posted.
Jurors on Jan. 16 found Stahl guilty of a single misdemeanor count of corruption of minors, siding with a woman who testified in Luzerne County Court that she and the former Coughlin teacher engaged in a consensual sexual relationship beginning in 2004 and lasting more than a year while she was a 16-year-old student.
Stahl maintained his innocence when he took the witness stand.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 23.