Pennsylvania principal charged with having years-long sexual relationship with high school student

A Pennsylvania school principal was arrested and accused of having a years-long sexual relationship with a student, who trusted the administrator “like an older brother,” authorities said Friday.

State police and prosecutors earlier this week announced the arrest of Roger Weaver Freed, 34, and he’s since been released on $175,000 bail, state Trooper Lauren Lesher said.

He’s been charged with alleged sexual contact with a student, corruption of a minor, furnishing liquor to a minor, sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault without consent. The victim, now college-aged, has not been named by authorities.

Freed on Friday was still listed as a principal at Williamsport Area High School, which is about 90 miles north of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg and 7 miles west of the famed baseball complex where the Little League World Series is played every summer.

Publicly listed phone numbers for Freed appeared to be disconnected. It wasn’t immediately known if Freed had hired an attorney, Lesher said.

A representative for the Williamsport Area School District did not return messages seeking comment on Friday morning.

“Between late 2015 and April 2022,” Freed “engaged in a sexual relationship” with the student that lasted into the victim’s college tenure, according to a criminal complaint written by state Trooper Matthew Miller.

The two became close when the victim’s brother died of brain cancer as the youngster eventually “trusted Freed ‘like an older brother,'” Miller added.

The victim said he spent considerable one-on-one time with Freed believing they were “‘bros’ and could talk about anything, especially (the boy’s) sexuality,” according to the complaint.

And during one sexual encounter in the spring or summer of 2017, Freed told the teen “you promise not to tell anybody” because “I could lose my job over this,” Miller wrote.

Freed continued to have sex with the student even after his graduation from high school in 2018, the complaint said.

“The abuse began when the child was approximately sixteen years of age,” according to a statement by Lycoming County District Attorney Ryan Gardner.

“The arrest of Roger Freed should serve as a reminder that regardless of status or influence, the voices of abused children will not fall on deaf ears by any Lycoming County Law Enforcement Agency.”