Schools

Ramona High Principal's Statement on Travis Masse Case in Colorado

Chris King: "As parents who entrusted their own child to be mentored by this man, we were outraged by Masse's crimes and were relieved to see him convicted."

The following statement on the Travis Masse case was sent to Patch by Chris King, the new principal of Ramona High School, addressing issues that arose when he was superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado.

During the 2008-2009 school year, my son was a freshman at Broomfield High School in the Boulder Valley School District where I was superintendent. He was a member of the varsity wrestling team which traveled nationally to compete, including a trip to a California tournament in January 2009.

That season, my son and his teammates were led by then-head coach Travis Masse. The team won the State Championship in February 2009 and Masse was named the Coach of the Year by the Colorado High School Athletics Association. Mr. Masse was married to a fellow teacher who regularly attended wrestling events and the couple had a child. 

Mr. Masse’s parents were big supporters of the wrestling team and also traveled widely with the team to attend wrestling events. At this point in time, Masse was highly respected by the wrestling community for his accomplishments as a coach and no one, including those closest to him, suspected him of any wrongdoing.

In October 2009 (the start of my son’s sophomore year), a female student alleged that Mr. Masse sent her inappropriate text messages, and Mr. Masse was immediately placed on administrative leave while an investigation took place. The investigation took months and uncovered other student victims and, in spring 2010, Mr. Masse was charged with sexual misconduct and resigned from BVSD.

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A full year later, in May 2011, the case went to trial.

In total, three minors alleged they had sex with Mr. Masse during the 2008-2009 school year, and that one of these incidents involved a female team manager on a wrestling trip to Fountain Valley, CA in January 2009.

Find out what's happening in Ramonawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

On this trip to Fountain Valley, coaches, student team managers, wrestlers and parents all stayed at the same hotel. All team members, including Mr. Masse, the assistant coaches, the athletes, and the student managers stayed on the 2nd floor. While on the stand, the victim testified that a sexual encounter happened between her and Masse on the hotel’s 8th floor. 

This is the first time that anyone outside of the investigation had heard information about the location of the crime. The defense stated that, since no rooms were booked on the 8th floor in the team’s name, the girl was wrong and that her testimony was unreliable. It was at this time that I recalled that many parents, including my family and me, had stayed in rooms on the 8th floor.

For that particular tournament, my wife, my daughter, and I had booked and pre-paid online for a hotel room for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. When my son was eliminated from the tournament Saturday morning, we decided to go to Los Angeles to sightsee. 

Since our room for Saturday night was pre-paid and we weren’t going to use it, we gave the key to Mr. Masse so that coaches and wrestlers, who were staying four to a room, could use the extra space. At this point in time, there were no concerns about Masse’s conduct and, in fact, the first allegations would not surface for another nine months. Since he was a trusted and respected coach, I had no concern in giving him the room for the team’s use.

Upon hearing the victim’s testimony related to the 8th floor hotel room at the May 2011 trial, I immediately went to an officer of the court to report that I had information to share with the DA. Again, prior to that time, I had not been interviewed by investigators (nor had any of the other parents on the trip) and I had no access to the details of the victim’s testimony with which to make this connection.

Ultimately, Mr. Masse was convicted by the State of Colorado and sent to prison with a sentence of 10 years-to-life.

After the trial, some people suggested through the local media that I should have come forward with this information earlier. These individuals spoke without knowing that my wife and I had no access to details of the investigation and were never even questioned during the investigation. 

They also didn’t know that, the moment I heard the victim’s testimony, I left the courtroom and went straight to the first available officer. As parents who entrusted their own child to be mentored by this man, we were outraged by Masse’s crimes and were relieved to see him convicted.

After the criminal trial concluded, the three victims filed civil suit against Boulder Valley School District. On September 25, 2012, a District Court in Colorado dismissed the case, but on January 11, 2013, the victims appealed the district court’s decision. To my knowledge, the appeal has not been heard yet.

Christopher King, Ph.D. Date: 6/13/13


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