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Dori: Chimacum students could be in danger from school board member

Nov 1, 2018, 6:04 AM

Chimacum...

(AP)

(AP)

How do you get rid of a school board member who appears to be somewhat unstable? If these court documents that I have in my hand are to be believed, there is some really scary stuff going on over on the peninsula in the Chimacum School District.

According to an exclusive story in the Peninsula Daily News in Jefferson County, there is a director named Robert Bunker on the Chimacum School Board. Bunker’s separated wife got a restraining order against him that, according to court documents, accuses him of some pretty scary stuff, such as coercive sex and even a sex contract.

Robert Bunker is still sitting on the school board. Both the school board members and the superintendent want him to step down. He has not said that he will. Meanwhile, Bunker has a restraining order that stops him from going within 500 feet of Chimacum High School. The school board meetings take place in the school library.

Let me tell you a little bit about Robert Bunker — he was appointed to the Chimacum School Board in 2013 and elected to it by the people in 2015. His estranged wife alleges that he has stalked and harassed her. She says that he hired a private detective to follow her, which he has admitted. She also claims that he put a GPS on her car to know her whereabouts, called and harassed her family, threatened to make intimate videos public and send them to her colleagues at work, and calls her names such as “tramp, whore, narcissist.”

She wrote in the request for a protection order:

The harassment, stalking, threats will continue. He will keep texting me. If I block him, he will show up at my home, work, or car. He will threaten my friends and family. I don’t know what he would do. I’m tired of being afraid every day.

Then she attached a contract that they both signed — this is where it gets bizarre, and even more disturbing. The contract requires her to pay him $500 a month to remain on the house title and to “perform wild, sexual acts” for him whenever he wants. In exchange, he promised that he will not “[expletive] up a third person’s life.” When the newspaper asked Bunker about the contract, he would not comment on it, but he would not deny it either.

We are talking about a school board member. These are the people who are in charge of overseeing your tax dollars, a huge amount of tax money that goes to the schools.

What does it take to get rid of a school board member? The Chimacum School District is now fearful for the safety of the kids. They want to do the right thing, but all they can do is ask him to resign, even after the protection order was granted. We need a system to better protect tax dollars, kids, and people who are trying to escape a poisonous relationship.

RELATED: Do Washington schools already have enough funding? 

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Dori: Chimacum students could be in danger from school board member