Former Kentwood High student offers to settle in sex case

Former Kentwood High School student Ronnie Wesby, alleges that he had a year-long consensual sexual relationship in 1999 with a former Kentwood Junior High teacher while he was a boy in high school offers to settle and end the four-year-old case.

According to his deposition, Ronnie T. Wesby, 25, alleges that he and former junior high teacher Tigia Finn, 34, had a consensual sexual relationship with him in 1999 that started when he was 15-year-old freshman at Kentwood High School. He also alleges that the affair continued into 2004.

According to records, Wesby claims the romance also included sexual encounters in Finn's classroom until she got her own apartment where the affair continued on a regular basis. Wesby also claims in his deposition, Finn, now 34, but was 24 when the alleged relationship occurred in 1999, took him to a football game at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

Wesby also alleges that then-principal Ann Smith, now School Board Vice President, knew about the affair. He claims he told Smith about the relationship in 2002 because Finn was becoming controlling towards him.

Wesby alleges, Smith urged him to keep the affair quiet. School Board attorney Chris Moody said Smith and school officials did not know anything about the affair until Finn filed a criminal complaint against Wesby in May 2004.

In court documents, Finn acknowledged the relationship but she claims that the relationship started in November 1999 after Wesby turned 16 and that sexual encounters never occurred on campus. Wesby's suit came nine months after Finn filed criminal complaints with the Independence Police Department where she alleges Wesby punched her in the face, threw her on the ground and pushed her into her car. A state district judge granted a protective order against Wesby in 2004.

After learning about the affair, school officials asked Finn to resign and school board minutes show she resigned in 2004.

According to attorney Chris Moody, Wesby's civil suit has not progressed through the court system at this point and Wesby has approached the school board about a settlement. In response to the settlement offer, the School Board has authorized Moody to see if the case can be settled for a reasonable amount. According to Moody, if there is a settlement, it won't be for much because the school board does not think the system is responsible since officials claim they didn't know about the relationship and it was off-campus.