Baldwin County Schools administrators heard rumors of alleged sexual relationships between students and a high school teacher for several years, Superintendent Gene Trammell said Friday.

Marketing teacher Alison Diane Ivey, 28, is accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old high school student, and investigators have said more victims could surface before the case is closed.

Trammell said officials received phone calls telling administrators about alleged sexual relationships between Ivey and students, but they could do nothing about it.

“Over the years, we’ve received anonymous phone calls, but you can’t do anything with anonymous phone calls,” Trammell said. “We called the Georgia Professional Standards Commission each time, and they said to us that until we get someone to go on record, there’s not much we can do.”

The commission is now conducting an investigation into the felony charges Ivey faces and should complete and deliver its findings in a timely fashion, Trammell said.

“They’ll do a quick investigation, and if they determine that there is substantive proof, they’ll come to us with a recommendation,” the superintendent said.

The Baldwin County Board of Education will look to the commission for guidance in making a decision, because the commission determines whether Ivey can keep her teaching license, Trammell said.

Trammell, who ends a 12-year tenure as Baldwin County Schools System superintendent on June 30, noted that Ivey’s arrest is the first incident of alleged sexual contact between a student and teacher since he took the reins of the county’s public school system in 1996.

Meanwhile, Ivey remains free on a $25,000 property bond following a felony charge of sexual assault stemming from an alleged sexual relationship with a Baldwin High School student. Her father signed the bond, which included several special conditions, Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Fred Bright said.

“She is not to go on the Baldwin High School campus, [she can have] no direct or indirect contact with Baldwin High students, and no direct or indirect contact with six named students at Baldwin High School,” Bright said.

Bright did not release the names of those six students.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Milledgeville Police Department partnered in the ongoing investigation of the teacher.

Ivey is on paid professional leave from Baldwin County Schools pending the outcome of the investigation.

Ivey’s mother is Judy Ivey, chairwoman of Baldwin County Board of Education. Her board seat is up for re-election this fall, though she has not publicly announced plans to seek another term. She has served on the school board for nearly 12 years.

Calls placed to the chairwoman’s home seeking comment on Friday were not returned.

Parents, Trammell said, have called Baldwin High since the story got out that Ivey was arrested Thursday afternoon, and that they’re concerned.

“We’re monitoring things. We’re watching the situation like a hawk, and there’s probably not a safer place in Georgia than Baldwin High School right now,” Trammell said. “We’ve sent out a phone call to all parents informing them and simply telling them that this allegedly has occurred and that we’ve taken all necessary steps.”

Guidance counselors made themselves available to students Friday as part of Baldwin High’s response to the situation.

Baldwin County Sheriff’s deputies patrolled the halls following a serious fight that ensued at the school early Friday morning, Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee said.

“We sent two deputies who were scheduled to work traffic patrol to Baldwin High to assist the resource officer in keeping the students in order,” Massee said.

Massee could not confirm whether the fights had anything to do with the investigation into the teacher.

Ivey resigned from her teaching job effective at the beginning of next school year, saying she was moving away from Milledgeville, Trammell said Thursday afternoon. She did not resign as a result of her arrest, he said.

Ivey has been the school’s marketing teacher since July 2005 when she earned her teaching certificate. Prior to earning her certificate, Ivey worked in the schools system as a paraprofessional doing public relations work.



Union-Recorder Staff Writer Hannah Marney contributed to this story.