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Grand Jury Hears Testimony On Plum Teacher-Student Sex Allegations

DORMONT (KDKA) – A grand jury is hearing testimony on the alleged teacher sex scandal at Plum High School.

A number of people, including alleged witnesses and victims, were spotted going into a grand jury building in Dormont today.

Teachers Jason Cooper and Joseph Ruggieri are accused of having sexual relationships with students.

Wednesday, KDKA learned there could be as many as eight alleged victims.

Detectives were at the school this week removing files and other items that could potentially show whether district officials knew about the allegations, but stayed quiet.

Art teacher Dennis Swogger and former employee Scott Kolar testified for several hours behind closed doors.

It was Swogger who led police to Cooper after hearing students discussing tweets between Cooper and a female student. Swogger reported Cooper to the principal.

Later Ruggieri was accused of also having sex with a student. After his arrest, Kolar, the former JROTC instructor at the school, contacted school board members. He told them he had warned the district about Ruggieri two years earlier, but nothing was done.

Both Swogger and Kolar complied with State Act 126, which requires school personnel to report all incidents of child abuse.

But did the district fulfill its responsibility in pursuing those reports?

Investigators are trying to determine what the district knew, when they knew and if it acted decisively to protect its students.

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