Former VC teacher arrested on sex charges

William Beeson, a former English and theater arts teacher at Virginia City High School, has been arrested on sexual assault charges.

According to Sgt. Ken Quirk of the Storey County Sheriff's Office, Beeson was arrested at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Piper's Opera House, where he serves as program director.

He was charged with one count of suspicion of felony sexual assault of a child under the age of 16, one general count of suspicion of felony sexual assault and one count of suspicion of misdemeanor unlawful conduct with a child.

The arrests were a result of a warrant out of Virginia City Justice Court arising from a previous investigation, Quirk said.

Quirk also said the second count of sexual assault is the alternative count if the first count is not successful.

He said he was not sure if the counts involved the same incident or several incidents.

Bail was set at $150,000.

Quirk said several incidents were under investigation by the Storey County Sheriff's Office.

"Cases that we are investigating are several years old," he said.

Beeson was accused in April 2007 of improperly touching a student and was placed on administrative leave in May. He was fired in August.

In November he offered a settlement that the board rejected, in which he would hold harmless the school district, waive further appeals, and would give up his teaching credential and not seek or accept teaching positions, either professional or voluntary, in the United States, in return for being allowed to resign with 12Ú3 years bought out by the district.

The Storey County School Board rejected that offer in November and on Dec. 6 upheld the firing. That case is now headed to arbitration.

• To contact Karen Woodmansee e-mail kwoodmansee@ nevadaappeal.com or call 881-7351.