The former principal at Amador Valley High School, Jonathan Fey, says his identity had been stolen and that he was not messaging former or current students on Grindr using the account ‘eyes emoji’
A high school principal has resigned after allegedly using Grindr to approach a past and current student about hooking up.
Jonathan Fey, who had worked at Amador Valley High School, in Pleasanton California since 2022, was told, he would be fired on February 28, after spending months on administrative leave following a misconduct investigation.
Led by the Pleasanton Unified School District Board, the investigation found that the 54-year-old contacted students on the app using an account dubbed ‘eyes emoji’, ABC 7 News reports. Mr Fey denies the allegations and claims his identity was stolen.
A former student who graduated in 2023 told the district that he had been contacted on Grindr in August 2024 by someone he believed to be Fey.
Initially, the student had doubts that the account was Fey’s, however the day after ‘eyes emoji’ made contact, Fey followed the young man on Instagram. The former student said that he could not believe that was a coincidence.
The former student gave investigators screenshots of the messages exchanged with ‘eyes emoji’, in which they gave away hints about themselves. ‘Eyes emoji’ told the student they had a desire to ‘hook up’ with him, as long as his identity was kept secret.
A second young man who claimed Fey made contact with him via the app was one of the teacher’s students at Amador Valley High.
Investigators found that Fey wanted to start a “secret romantic and sexual relationship” with the student, with records showing Fey told the student through Grindr that he was “hella hot”.
Fey, who denies the allegations appealed the decision to an administrative law judge before accepting a $254,000 (£193,000) settlement last week.
Pleasanton Unified School District Board President Justin Brown, said that: “a neutral third-party investigator substantiated allegations of misconduct by Mr Fey, which the district and the board of trustees took seriously.”
Brown added that the district “chose to settle the upcoming (appeal) to avoid subjecting students and staffers the stressors of testifying in an adversarial hearing” and to “preserve resources that otherwise would be spent in litigation”.
In a written statement Fey said: “the allegations made against me are false.”
The ex-teacher maintains that he was not ‘eyes emoji’ and that his identity had been stolen. Court documents reveal that Fey’s lawyer noted instances of Amador Valley students posing as other people online.
Another former student told investigators that she once saw Fey’s phone open on the Grindr app while he was chaperoning a school event.
Fey reported alleged identity theft on at least one occasion to the Pleasanton police this year.
Pleasonton Police Lt. Nicholas Albert said that police investigated Fey’s claim and that “no criminal report was filed and no arrests were made”.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.