A high school principal in Alameda County has resigned as part of a settlement after a school district investigation found sufficient evidence that he used an online app to communicate with a former and current student about sex, once proposing a "secret school tryst," newly released public records show.
Jonathan M. Fey, 54, who had worked at Amador Valley High School in the Pleasanton Unified School District since 2022, was notified Feb. 28 that he was being fired, following months on administrative leave.
He appealed to an administrative law judge before accepting a $254,000 settlement last week that includes legal fees and back pay. "The allegations made against me are false," Fey said in a written statement issued by a San Jose public relations firm.
As pointed out by EdSource, the district's investigation showed that Fey contacted students from an account on the dating app Grindr, with the "eyes emoji" as his username.
A message from a Grindr account that a former student told school district investigators he believed belonged to Jonathan M. Fey. Fey has said his identity was stolen and denies owning the account.
A former student who graduated in 2023 notified the district in August 2024 that he had also been contacted by a person on Grindr he believed to be Fey.
The student said he was at first doubtful the account was Fey's. But the day after this first contact with "eyes emoji," the student said Fey followed him on Instagram, which, the former student said, he could not believe was a co-incidence.
The former student eventually gave the district screenshots of messages he exchanged with the person he believed to be Fey. They traded hints about themselves. "Eyes emoji" expressed a desire to "hook up" with the former student as long as his identity was kept secret, the investigation report shows.
A second person who claimed Fey approached him on Grindr was one of the principal's students at Amador Valley. The district's investigator found that Fey expressed a desire to establish "a secret romantic and sexual relationship" with the student, records show, telling the student via the app that he was "hella hot."
Fey continued to maintain that he was not "eyes emoji," claiming that his identity had been stolen. In court documents, his lawyer noted that there were instances of Amador Valley students posing as other people online.
A different former student told the investigator that she once saw Fey's phone open to the Grindr app when he was acting as a chaperone at a school event.
Fey made at least one report to Pleasanton Police alleging identity theft this year. Pleasanton Police Lt. Nicholas Albert told EdSource via email that police investigated Fey's claim and that "no criminal report was filed and no arrests were made." The matter was referred to the school district for further review, he wrote.
The district also notified Pleasanton Police of the matter, records show. As a result of past sexual abuse scandals, state law requires that a school district report to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing within 30 days when a teacher, or an employee holding a teaching credential, resigns or is suspended for more than 10 days as a result of an allegation of misconduct.
The district must include a report that explains the allegation and all related documents, which, in Fey's case, would be an investigator's conclusion of probable cause of sexual solicitation.
