MARYLAND — Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Special Victims Investigations Division, have arrested and charged Peter Wright Priest Mason, age 42, of New Market, for sexually abusing a Colonel Zadok Magruder High School, 17-year-old female student. At the time of these offenses, Mason was employed as a teacher for Montgomery County Public Schools at Colonel Zadok Magruder High School which is located at 5939 Muncaster Mill Road in Derwood.
On November 2, detectives began investigating the report that Mason had engaged in a sexual relationship with the victim.
WJLA reported: Mason made arrangements to meet the girl at a park located near Magruder High School, court documents state. During their first off-campus encounter, the five-foot nine, 205-pound Mason allegedly led the girl to a wooded area and kissed her.
For the following four to six weeks, Mason and the girl met every Friday in the same park following afternoon dismissal. The teacher and student would drive separately to the park, enter the wooded area and engage in oral and sexual intercourse, police allege.
In what one Magruder parent described as “shocking,” Mason and the teen are said to have met during the early morning hours of a school day and had sexual intercourse in his classroom.
“It was early enough that no other students or staff were in the hallway of the school, and the door to the classroom was kept closed,” authorities wrote in court documents. “Mason was responsible for the supervision of Victim A, as she was a student enrolled at Magruder, and more specifically a daily student in his class.”
STORY: MCPS hired Mason in 2011. He worked as a paraeducator at Northwest High School in Germantown, Md. prior to transferring to Magruder in 2015.
Aside from two speeding tickets, Mason appears to have a clean record, at least in Maryland.https://t.co/omDo38j4SO
— Kevin Lewis (@ABC7Kevin) November 21, 2019
On Wednesday, Mason was arrested on the strength of a Montgomery County arrest warrant charging him with sexual abuse of a minor and fourth-degree sex offense by a person in a position of authority.
Mason has been employed with MCPS since 2011 and worked as a paraeducator at Northwest High School (located at 13501 Richter Farm Road in Germantown) from 2011 to 2015. Detectives are requesting that parents of students who may have had contact with Mason talk to their children about their interactions with him and contact SVID detectives at 240-773-5400 if they believe their child was victimized.
