Confessed Rapist Uncovered In 1975 Yearbook As Science Teacher

Donald Ingerson—the former St. Louis-area teacher —taught at W. F. Gaunt school in Affton from 1971-76, Patch has discovered

That means Ingerson worked there at the same time a woman says Ingerson sexually assaulted her repeatedly between September 1974 and January 1976.

In 1975, the Gaunt School was ninth-grade students, located at 8520 Mackenzie Road, in Affton.

Ingerson taught in Rockwood Schools just prior to the school year of the confessed rape.

St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch said Tuesday that Ingerson, 67, has been charged with one count of rape and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy.

A former Gaunt School student, Anne Badalamenti, gave Patch a school yearbook page from 1975 showing Ingerson as a physical science teacher.

"We were all like, 'Oh, yeah, we remember that guy,'" Badalamenti said. She and her friends were discussing Ingerson's arrest on Facebook, where she says several of her friends remember Ingerson as a long haired man who was rumored to have had "affairs" with students.

Badalamenti and her friends say they remember him coaching the freshman football and wrestling teams.

Affton Superintendent Steve Brotherton said a former employee of the district recognized Ingerson as working in the district schools.

Ingerson taught in St. Louis County beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the 1990s, prosecutors said.

Two victims, girls, have been identified so far, although McCulloch said his work on similar cases leads him to think there are others.

Ingerson is suspected of having had multiple sexual encounters with both, McCulloch said, the first between September 1974 and January 1976, and the second between January 1, 1995 and November 17, 1996.

Ingerson, who lives in Ely, MN, near the Canadian border, arrived in St. Louis on Sunday and repeated statements about the sexual encounters to police on Monday, McCulloch said. At that time, McCulloch said, Ingerson was arrested.

Ingerson did not seem to realize that the statute of limitations had not expired, McCulloch said.

Both victims have been contacted and have been cooperative. Police previously had not heard of either the victims or Ingerson, McCulloch said. 

McCulloch said Ingerson moved to Minnesota sometime after he retired from teaching.

Ingerson is being held in the St. Louis County Jail on a $300,000 cash-only bond.

Other local school districts where Ingersol did not work include: Parkway, Bayless, Lindbergh, Hancock Place, Pattonville.

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Related Topics: Don Ingerson and Teacher Charged Do you remember Donald Ingerson?