DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — Deputies in Douglas County are searching for additional victims after a Roxborough teacher accused of sexually inappropriate behavior with several of his students was arrested this week on sex-related crime charges.
David Feil, 49, of Littleton, was arrested Monday on two counts of sexual abuse on a child by one in a position of trust and booked into the Douglas County Detention Facility where he is being held on a no-bond hold.
Feil is accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior with several of his 6th grade students at Roxborough Intermediate School, including befriending and sending inappropriate messages on social media, discussing sexually explicit material in class and engaging in physically inappropriate contact.
Douglas County School District officials told Denver7 Feil has been teaching at the school for the past 10 years but has been with the district since 2014, when he was hired to work as an Educational Assistant at Pine Lane Elementary School for students with special needs.
District officials said Feil was in that position for approximately one year before becoming a short-term substitute teacher at various locations across the district.
Students describe "weird" and "kind of not okay" behavior from 6th grade teacher
The investigation into Feil began after a student submitted an anonymous Safe2Tell tip back in March, in which they accused Feil of "extremely inappropriate" behavior that included having inappropriate interactions with his students through Snapchat, at times doing so while he was partially undressed, according to an arrest affidavit in the case.
Arresting documents show a human resources director for the district investigating these claims found a document authored by another HR director in 2021, "that contained a written warning to David about having personal relationships with his students and specifically having students added onto his social media accounts."
The HR director also found other pieces of documentation that showed the suspect's "historical allegations of inappropriate conduct," including a complaint against Feil that involved having inappropriate physical contact with students at a music festival outside school hours and Feil receiving a "letter of direction" during the 2021-2022 school year instructing him to not follow any children "on any sort of social media platform."
During interviews with students, deputies learned Feil had preferential treatment of certain students and engaged in inappropriate physical contact with others, including having some students sit on his lap during read aloud time, which students found "weird" and "kind of not okay," the affidavit states.
Deputies also learned that on one occasion, Feil was overheard talking with students about pornography and describing details of pornographic videos he saw. During this conversation, Feil reportedly asked the students not to speak about what they had heard with their parents or Feil would "get in trouble and go to jail."
The affidavit details students also recalling other times when Feil got in trouble for being inappropriately close with them, including one occasion in which he was caught by the vice principal as he was giving a student a bear hug, for which he was later reprimanded.
"He would touch us and pick us up and put me on his lap, and always tell us he loved us. He would brush our hair and give us piggyback rides," one student told deputies, recalling Feil's behavior towards some of the students in his class. The student said Feil would rub the backs of certain students while they sat on his lap which happened "at least three times a week." On one such occasion, a student recalled feeling Feil becoming sexually aroused.
The affidavit notes that some of the students described Feil's behavior toward some of their classmates as "flirty."
"Now looking back at it, I understand it was weird, but at the time, I just thought it was normal," one student told deputies.
"In my mind, not a big deal at the time"
Deputies then questioned Feil, who told them he's had issues with boundaries with students in the past, particularly during the 2021-2022 school year.
He recalled trying to be "accommodating" toward his students in the hope that it would "help later on with the behavior management piece," according to the affidavit.
"I have had in the past like trouble saying, you know, back off or whatever," Feil told deputies, and said he figured giving hugs to kids was OK as he's seen kids give hugs to teachers.
He told deputies about the times he's felt boundaries with students were not as strong as they should have been, recalling times when "he took being referred to as a “buddy or bestie” as a compliment, according to the affidavit.
“About halfway through the year, I realized that I'd given them too much room, it was hard to stop of the ball rolling, them calling me bestie and buddy and stuff. I was embarrassed when they did it, it was a hard lesson to learn," Feil reportedly told deputies, adding that reciprocating hugs did not feel like a big deal. "In my mind, not a big deal at the time."
When questioned about one instance in which he brought oranges to a student and set them on their desk in the shape of a heart after "snapping" at a student for being disrespectful toward him, Feil replied he thought it was "a harmless gesture, I was trying to make amends."
Deputies also questioned Feil about allowing students to sit on his lap, which he said he allowed because, "I didn't know how to escape the situation appropriately. I didn't know how to without embarrassing them," according to the affidavit. "But looking back, I was stupid."
At one point during the interview, arresting documents show Feil became nervous when deputies asked to seize his phone so they could go through allegedly incriminating messages, some of which showed Feil engaging in inappropriate conversations with some of his students.
"David expressed concern for us taking the messages out of context and wondering if any of the messaged would incriminate him in some way," the affidavit reads. "David continued to look through his message thread and stated, “I forgot I did this on freaking Instagram, I thought it was Snapchat.”"
Toward the end of the interview, Feil became visibily upset "as the gravity of this situation sank in," and a mental health time was called in to check on him, according to the affidavit.
"Although it has been a few years since these students were in David's class and encountered this inappropriateness for an entire school year, David does admit he crossed lines and knew he took his personal relationships with students too far that year," arresting documents state. The messages David exchanged with his students, particularly with show that David acted in a grooming manner in effort to gain trust of these students and ultimately committed unspeakable acts for his own benefit."
Detectives are asking anyone who may have information regarding this case or who believes they or someone they know might also be a victim of Feil to contact Detective Clay at sclay@dcsheriff.net.
The investigation is active and ongoing.
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