Parents who say their daughters were victims of Bryan Tyman will be in court Wednesday to send a message.
By many accounts, Bryan Tyman was a popular teacher at Fegely Middle School in Portage, Indiana. He resigned his position at the school after being accused of sending sexually-explicit text messages to several of his female students. He initially pleaded not guilty, but Wednesday is expected to change his plea in exchange for a deal to avoid prison.
"You send your kids to school to get an education, not to be preyed upon by perverts, basically," said the father of one of the alleged victims, who did not wish to be identified by name.
This father says his daughter was just 14 when her social studies teacher, 45-year-old Bryan Tyman, allegedly began inappropriate communication with her. Those text messages allegedly led to him sending nude pictures of his anatomy.
Tyman is accused of sending the explicit messages to several of his students at Fegeley Middle School.
"He should be in prison, it's unacceptable to touch or even to mentally abuse a child in that manner," said another parent of one of the alleged victims.
The parents say they are angry that a plea agreement may keep Tyman out of prison. The letter from the court says he will plead guilty to solicitation of a child and vicarious gratification.
In exchange, he could get 6 years of probation, he'd have to register as a sex offender for ten years and he loses his teaching license.
"By any objective sense, this is a very fair plea agreement. He's agreeing to a year of home detention, but no, he will not be going to the Department of Corrections," said Bryan Truitt, attorney.
No one answered when we rang the bell at Tyman's home.
Parents of the girls plan to be in court Wednesday, hoping to convince the judge to reject the plea deal and send Tyman to prison.
"He needs to be held accountable for what he's done to our children. And I think it will send a good message to the community that we're not going to tolerate nobody molesting our kids," said a father of one of the alleged victims.
Tyman pleaded not guilty to having sex with one of his students; that charge is expected to be dropped in the plea agreement. The alleged victims' families have hired an attorney and are filing a suit against the school district. ABC7 was unable to reach the district for a response.
