Harmful Coaching - Part 1: What Begins at Little Axe Public Schools Puts Girls Across Oklahoma at Risk for Decades
Harmful Coaching - Part 1: What Begins at Little Axe Public Schools Puts Girls Across Oklahoma at Risk for Decades
Public Ed's Hidden Crimes, Quiet Exits, and Harmful Hires Perpetuate Predation
(Article modified from its original content. Based upon additional reports received as a result of the original publication of this article: the title of this series has been adjusted to incorporate a larger scope of abuses within public education beyond reported rape as described within victim and witness statements; new information has been incorporated; some publicly available yearbook photos and information have been blocked or removed upon request or to shorten article length per platform guidelines.)
A group of male, public school coaches have been accused of sexually abusing the female students they were entrusted to teach and coach during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some adolescent girls report being manipulated into short term sexual relationships with their coaches. Those uninterested in false romantic engagements with school staff were reportedly raped after being drugged or while severely intoxicated. As the pattern spread to other districts, some were impregnated and/or married to protect their abuser from prosecution.
When credible accusations came to the attention of administrators, the coach in question would be protected by an internal investigation or, more often, quietly step down only to move on to another set of potential victims at another school district. The cycle continued until 2024, where we find some of the same men, now much older, continuing to fill roles of trust within public education across the state.
Many of the girls reportedly damaged by this ongoing cycle of perpetration are no longer processing their abuse and the loss of their innocence with a mind that is still developing. They are women and mothers determined to halt a pattern of internal protectionism within public education, many only recently coming to understand they were not their perpetrator’s only victim. One has fought for years to be heard within a system structured to keep victims voiceless. These women are silenced no more.
Little Axe Public Schools: The Epicenter of Abuse
Within a small, public school system 30 miles Southeast of Oklahoma City, a group of men began their careers within public education during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Little Axe Public Schools sits on the eastern shore of Lake Thunderbird and graduated around 100 students per year at that time.
Several coaches from the district are reported to have shared a rented house in nearby Norman, the scene of multiple reported sexual assaults. Those reporting abuse describe a fraternity of sorts, but with a much darker side. Within victim and witness statements for this group of women recently obtained by this publication, some coaches are accused of sexual crimes against students. Other coaches and administrators have been identified as potential witnesses to or having knowledge of the abuse and failing to report the crimes as required by law.
While not all Little Axe coaches of that era have been accused of crimes against students, the bro code appears to have allowed a pattern of abuse to continue unchecked. The Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) is currently and actively investigating all related reports of abuse.
Victims describe a cult of personality in those days, centered around softball and baseball coach Michael Paul Allen, a Little Axe teacher and coach from 1997 until 2002. According to one of Allen’s reported victims, “Mike was the charismatic center of the circle…even older coaches were looking for his approval.”
Allen’s reportedly hard-partying reputation is evidenced by his arrest for DUI (April 2000) in Norman while employed with Little Axe PS. Allen was bailed out by Geoffrey D. Holt, a certified math and PE teacher whose credentials expired in 2005 and were not renewed. Allen briefly lost his driver’s license and received a 1-year deferred sentence.
This publication has obtained permission from many of the now women involved to share their stories. Some understandably have chosen to remain anonymous within public media at this time and will be referred to only by an altered first name. Due to the volume of information provided within these statements, and with a commitment to fully and accurately representing the experiences of the victims involved, their stories will be presented in a series of articles over the coming weeks.
Forcing Public Ed to Listen: One Woman’s Story Sparks Others to Disclose Sexual Abuse
After years of internal turmoil, processing and physical healing from her injuries, during the summer of 2020, Ashley (formerly Terrell) Rolen, a 2002 graduate of Little Axe High School, began communicating with the OSDE in an attempt to report being drugged and raped by teacher/coach Michael Paul Allen in Texas during the Spring of 2002.
Due to state statutes of limitation in Texas, Rolen learned she was no longer able to press charges against Allen in that state and turned her attention to protecting girls by requesting the OSDE investigate and revoke Allen’s teaching certifications. The police report filed by Rolen confirms the South Padre Island Police Department, in 2020, also directly informed the OSDE of the reported crime by Allen:
“Due to the time frame of when the report was filed the statute of limitation has expired in Texas. Report is being forward to Oklahoma State Department of Education for review.” Report Made By: Det. Alberto Dominguez # 2182
At the time of Rolen’s initial reporting, the OSDE was under the direction of State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister (R then D), and Rolen recalls repeatedly being ignored or told the agency did not currently have an investigator. After Rolen had communicated extensively with then OSDE staff attorney Telana McCullough for nearly a year as the agency assured an investigation was in progress, the OSDE suggested Rolen collect evidence herself and submit it to them.
Rolen then spent two years researching and contacting others she suspected may have been similarly victimized and uncovering a pattern of sexual abuse by coaches targeting primarily overachievers, exceptional athletes and girls with intact families who had placed total trust in their daughter’s coaches.
In June of 2023, Rolen sent a certified, 14-page letter to the Office of Legal Services within the OSDE along with individual statements from victims and witnesses outlining sex crimes reportedly perpetrated by not only Allen but others still working within public education.
By that time, new State Superintendent Ryan Walters had been leading the OSDE for five months. On January 24th, this publication requested records of service (districts of employment, dates of service and roles) from the OSDE concerning the former men of Little Axe PS involved in those statements. That request was fulfilled on February 26th.
The remainder of this first article within the series covers Rolen’s story and that of her friend “Jane” and reveals two accused perpetrators from a wider group of coaches identified within the statements.
Ashley Terrell Rolen and ‘Jane’ (Little Axe class of 2002)
In the spring of 2002, Ashley Terrell (now Rolen), then 17 years old, was a bright, successful student who was preparing to graduate a year early near the top of her class.
According to Rolen, she and her friend “Jane” traveled to Padre Island (Texas) with a group of fellow students for a senior, spring break trip. Unknown to either girl at the time, two high school teacher/coaches, Michael Paul Allen and Shawn Lee Finch, followed them, showing up at a public concert where the girls were in attendance.
Michael Allen was the current Little Axe girls softball and boys baseball coach at the time. Jane was a student athlete, and Rolen served as manager of the baseball team for three years.
Shawn Finch taught Spanish and was an assistant football coach at Little Axe before moving to nearby Lexington PS in mid-2000.
Finch was also known for heavy drinking, as evidenced by a charge for public intoxication in June of 1997.
From Rolen’s statement:
“ANONYMOUS (“Jane”) and I were dancing when all of a sudden coach Michael Allen and teacher Shawn Finch entered the facility. This took us completely off guard, as we live 11 hours away from where we were.”
According to the statement, Allen and Finch tried to dance with the girls, an offer the girls refused before separating from the coaches and leaving the venue. The coaches then reportedly pursued the girls to a local McDonalds. Rolen says she and Jane were then pressured into “hanging out” with the men at their hotel on the beach where Finch purchased them each a $20 wristband that allowed access to the hotel.
Once in Allen and Finch’s hotel room, along with a third coach not from Little Axe and previously unknown to both girls, Rolen reports Allen and Finch provided alcohol.
“They kept pushing alcohol at us, pressuring us into drinking…at one point, Mr. Allen and Mr. Finch started telling stories about how they had sexual relations with girls from our high school.”
The coaches’ reported stories of consensual stripping and group sex with other female students well known to Rolen and Jane have since been discredited by those now women. Rolen believes the men were using the fabricated stories of willing participation to manipulate both girls into such acts.
When interviewed, Rolen remembered feeling uncomfortable about the conversation and the unnamed coach saying things like “don’t say that”, “quit telling them this” and “you’re going to regret this” to Allen and Finch.
Rolen reports following the unnamed coach out to the balcony of the room for safety. At that point, Rolen believes the effects of a drug surreptitiously placed in her drink began to take affect:
From Ashley Rolen’s victim statement: “Through the open door I saw Michael Allen approach me, he said something, but it was almost inaudible, in slow motion. I turned to my right to see him walking towards me, I could not talk. My vision blurred, he picked me up and I felt like a rag doll at that point. I blacked out. My next memory is waking up/coming to for about 5 seconds. I opened by eyes and Michael Allen was on top of me and asked me if I took birth control. I could not talk, could not say yes or no or get the hell off me…
My next memory is of ANONYMOUS (“Jane”) screaming and crying, which woke me. I sat up, and realized that I was naked, and Michael Allen was asleep in the bed next to me and I panicked. I jumped up to tend to ANONYMOUS (“Jane”). At this point I see my clothes were folded neatly on the floor with my socks rolled together and placed in my boots…I realized that I had been raped. I knew I had not taken my clothes off. I grabbed my clothes and ANONYMOUS (“Jane”) and we went into the bathroom. I got ANONYMOUS (“Jane”) in the shower, she had urinated all over herself and was not sure what happened.”
Rolen does not remember seeing the third coach in the room when she and Jane regained consciousness (only Allen and Finch). Rolen states Jane was also naked and disoriented. Jane is not yet comfortable with publicly sharing the details of her own experience but has since reported in writing to Rolen that she remembers being on the bed with Finch and seeing Rolen being raped by Allen on the floor.
Rolen has no memory of being on the floor, her clothes being removed or being moved to the bed. Both Rolen and Jane experienced symptoms commonly associated with Rohypnol (“roofie”), a date-rape drug that can be slipped into a beverage without the victim’s knowledge.
Medical News Today on date rape drugs: One of the most common and well-known benzodiazepine drugs individuals use in this way is Rohypnol (flunitrazepam). Rohypnol causes a person to feel very relaxed, weakens their muscles, and may cause loss of muscle control. Some people may also lose consciousness or feel dizzy and confused.
After Rohypnol wears off, some individuals do not remember what happened. Rohypnol comes in pill form, but a perpetrator can dissolve it in liquid, such as an alcoholic drink.
Rohypnol affects the victim for 6 to 12 hours, takes effect in as little as 15 minutes, and works on the central nervous system causing relaxation of muscles. At high doses or when enhanced by alcohol, the drug can lead to complete loss of muscle control (including incontinence and the inability to speak or move) and can be life-threatening due to its ability to slow breathing.
Upon returning home from Padre Island in March of 2002, Rolen told only her sister and her then boyfriend L. Williams, now a detective for an Oklahoma sheriff’s department, about being raped by Michael Allen. According to Rolen, during her last weeks in high school, Allen would stop her at school and beg her not to tell on him because he would lose his job. Williams has provided a statement concerning his conversations with Rolen in the days, weeks and months following the assault which, despite a 20-year gap, includes corroborating details that align with Rolen’s statement:
“Ashley said she woke up naked in the bed next to Allen, with her clothes neatly folded next to the bed…she knew she didn’t neatly fold her black dress and underwear then stack them next to the bed. Ashley told me she believed Allen had sex with her while she was unconscious.” - L. Williams
Following the attack, Rolen began to experience serious medical symptoms, stating “I didn’t have any gastric or colon issues prior to being raped.” Research links Rohypnol to such medical injuries:
Rolen’s doctor stated she had the “colon of a 98-year-old man” and a concerningly high white blood cell count. To this day, Rolen endures health and medical challenges that her doctor attributes to the reported rape and Rohypnol. Williams’ statement further corroborates Rolen’s experience:
Within a few short months, Rolen’s medical condition became so severe that her doctor convinced her to confide in her mother. Rolen’s mother, Diane Terrell, worked as registrar for the Little Axe school district at the time (1998-2020).
Diane Terrell recently passed away, but prior to her death, made notes concerning the drastic changes in her daughter following the spring break trip. Terrell also came to understand what she believed were Allen’s attempts to falsely gain her trust and control her daughter prior to the reported rape.
In her notes, Diane Terrell states she directly informed Little Axe PS’s then superintendent Barry Damrill and high school principal Bobby Hicks about the drugging and rape of her daughter by Allen. Mr. Damrill retired in 2011, and Mr. Hicks is now deceased.
This publication can find no evidence that anyone from the district has ever made a report to law enforcement concerning Terrell’s disclosures. There is also no publicly available record of any internal investigation into Allen’s conduct while at Little Axe PS. The district informed Rolen that all meeting minutes and personnel records from that time were destroyed when a tornado damaged the district’s offices in 2010. However, this publication recently interviewed a Little Axe office staff member who revealed that during the time of Allen’s employment, the district had contracted for all such records to be transferred to a non-paper format for long-term storage. It is unknown where such storage may have been located.
After learning of her daughter’s rape, Diane Terrell remembered having assisted in faxing information to a school lawyer, several years prior, related to another accusation of inappropriate behavior concerning Allen and a student softball player. Terrell recalls about the previous accusation, “I totally supported him (Allen), everyone did not believe this parent at all, most thought he was innocent and she was crazy.”
Parent and Student Whistleblowers Ignored and Vilified
Within witness statements submitted to the OSDE, another former student (Little Axe class of 2002) describes how she and her mother were among a group of softball players and their parents who approached the Little Axe school board with a formal complaint about Allen’s inappropriate conduct with the female students he coached. According to the statement, “Allen had a habit of treating a handful of our teammates as if they were his lovers.”
During an out-of-town tournament, players and their parents reported observing Coach Allen’s interactions with students to be inappropriate as he encouraged some of the girls to lay on the bed with him, shower, and dress within his hotel room.
According to the statement, “The school board essentially laughed in our faces, telling us that we were nothing more than trouble makers and swept all the given information and multiple eyewitness reports under the rug.”
The former student believes the board’s reaction emboldened Allen, making him more “openly affectionate/aggressive with some of the girls on the team” and allowing him to treat those who had expressed concern with contempt. After Allen reportedly and publicly yelled at both the student and her mother during a game, the student says she quit the team forever.
“Michael Allen plays a huge role in why we homeschool our children. I don’t want them to encounter a ‘Coach’ like him.” - former student (Little Axe class of 2002)
Districts Changed but Patterns Persisted: Allen and Finch Hop Districts, Continue to Coach
Both Michael Allen and Shawn Finch have changed school districts numerous times over the years as accusations of misconduct have arisen. In each case, parents were left in the dark as a coach was allowed to quietly step down and move on. No evidence has been found to suggest law enforcement was ever involved. Both men continue to teach and coach within Oklahoma public schools. The V1SUT Vantage has reached out to both men for comment. As of publication, neither has responded.
Michael Allen’s Career in Public Ed
Michael Allen’s career has involved a series of unexpected moves following silent scandals. Three months after the reported rape of Ashley Terrell, Michael Allen resigned from Little Axe PS (2002) and took a similar teaching/coaching job at Hinton PS. He married his second wife, a 1996 graduate and exceptional basketball player from Burns Flat-Dill City Schools, had a child with her in 2004, and is reported to have started a sexual relationship with student Sarah Chalfant (then 16), a Hinton high school basketball player at the time. Chalfant was only a junior when Allen quietly stepped down at Hinton in 2005, and became pregnant in 2006 while Allen was still married.
A former staff member at Hinton PS during that time reports Belinda Chalfant, mother of the student and also a staff member at Hinton, announced within a teachers’ meeting that her daughter had been “drugged and raped” and was pregnant.
After his divorce in 2007, Allen and Chalfant applied for a marriage license in April of 2009, one day after Chalfant’s 21st birthday. What had started five years earlier as a crime, ended in a marriage that appears to have protected Allen from prosecution.
After leaving Hinton in 2005, Allen spent one year at Cache PS before temporarily stepping out of education with fellow Little Axe coach Robert “Lance” Palesano to form A & P Lawn & Landscaping in June of 2006.
The victim and witness statements reviewed by this publication as submitted to the OSDE do not mention Palesano.
The Third Coach in the Padre Island Hotel Room
After a 5-year absence from public education, in 2011, Allen returned to teaching/coaching at Frontier PS as softball coach Erron Kauk was promoted to principal. It has been reported that Kauk was the third coach present in the hotel room in Texas just prior to the sexual assaults of Rolen and Jane. This publication cannot confirm Kauk’s identity as the third coach and stresses that Kauk has not been accused of any sexual misconduct. In contrast, the third coach present in the Padre Island hotel room prior to the assaults is reported in Rolen’s statement to have discouraged inappropriate talk by Allen and Finch in the presence of the girls. Kauk is now the superintendent at Frontier PS.
During a recorded conversation (July 9, 2021) between Ashley Rolen and former Little Axe coach Tony Smith, Smith indicated his belief that Kauk was with Allen and Finch at Padre Island. Smith became superintendent at Little Axe then assistant superintendent and athletic director at Noble PS where Finch came to work in 2017. Within the conversation, Smith also indicated Allen had admitted to some type of sexual contact with Rolen at Padre Island within weeks of the trip. Other participants within the recorded conversation, an in-person meeting, included Rolen’s spouse and parents, as well as Smith’s spouse.
Rolen also contacted Kauk by phone (August 2, 2021), again recording the conversation. Initially, during the recorded phone call with Rolen, Kauk denied ever being with Allen and Finch, though he admitted going to Padre Island on spring break several times. Kauk denied ever witnessing any inappropriate behavior by Allen and Finch or any other coach. In reference to Allen, Kauk stated, “I’m not involved in any of that part of his life.”
Despite supervising and coaching alongside Allen at Frontier PS (2011-2014) and most recently at Cleveland PS (2017-2021), Kauk claimed, “I haven’t spoken to either (Allen or Finch) in a long, long time.” Kauk never worked at Little Axe but brought Allen onboard at Frontier PS.
While at Frontier and married to Sarah Chalfant-Allen, Allen’s ex-wife came to work for the district as a math teacher and coach (2011-2014). In May of 2014, scandal again surrounded Allen as the school board declined to renew both Allen’s and his ex-wife’s contracts for employment. Principal Kauk’s spouse and Frontier parents appear to have been left in the dark.
Kauk and Allen continued to coach teen girls together following Allen’s dismissal from Frontier:
Allen and wife Chalfant-Allen, who was by then teaching PE, were then hired within Sayre schools for two years. Sayre had previously fired a softball coach for inappropriate communications with players, but it is unknown why Allen left the district in 2016. Allen coached baseball, softball and basketball at Sayre PS.
Next, Allen and his wife were hired by former Little Axe coach Aaron Espolt (2000-2004), then superintendent at Cleveland PS and currently at Shawnee PS. Kauk also worked at Cleveland PS during that time (2018-2022). In December of 2019, both Espolt and Chalfant-Allen, by then a speech pathologist, stepped down mid-year without public explanation from the district or school board.
In 2020, Dr. Aaron Espolt then briefly moved to a newly created position at the OSDE under State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister. As Executive Director of School Design and Innovation, Espolt worked on a blueprint entitled Reimagining Excellence which purported to increase academic outcomes and school safety through social and emotional learning (SEL) and leadership.
It was at the OSDE that Espolt learned Rolen was investigating Little Axe coach crimes of the past. After reportedly being questioned by OSDE legal counsel concerning Rolen’s submissions, Espolt obtained Rolen’s phone number from a third party and contacted her. Within that recorded phone conversation (July 12th, 2021), and in response to Rolen’s accusation of rape against Allen, Espolt stated, “I’m not doubting anything you say…I just don’t want to be involved in it.”
Following recent communication with this publication, Espolt provided the statement, “Dr. Aaron Espolt does not have knowledge of Micheal Allen acting inappropriately with staff or students.”
Michael Allen remained at Cleveland until Rolen contacted Superintendent Alan Baker during the 2020-2021 school year concerning Allen’s history. Allen resigned from Cleveland PS and was then hired at Sentinel PS (2021-2022). Judging by Sarah Allen’s social media, another community of parents appear to remain unaware of any concerns or previous history…it’s all about sports.
Sentinel superintendent Jason Goostree was then informed of Allen’s history by Rolen, and Goostree allowed Allen to step down. Next, Michael Allen went to work within Cheyenne PS, where his mother-in-law, Belinda Chalfant, is a principal. According to board minutes, Allen resigned from Cheyenne PS after only one school year for unknown reasons.
Next, despite his previous departure, Superintendent Goostree rehired Allen back at Sentinel PS where Allen is currently a teacher and softball coach. Allen’s teaching credentials remain current with the OSDE despite Rolen’s submissions to the agency, beginning in 2020, which include the statements of others reportedly sexually assaulted by Allen.
Shawn Finch’s Career in Public Ed
Shawn Finch, formerly of Little Axe, was in his second year of teaching/coaching in Lexington by the time the reported sexual assaults of Rolen and friend “Jane” occurred at Padre Island (March 2002).
In 2004, it is reported Finch was inappropriately fraternizing with his high school students, though full details are unknown. Finch resigned from Lexington PS and moved to Missouri with a former Little Axe student and celebrated athlete. Finch taught and coached wrestling from 2004 until 2012 within Joplin Schools.
Finch then taught and coached wrestling at Clinton PS (OK) from 2012 until 2017 before moving to Noble PS under former Little Axe coach-mate Tony Smith, then assistant superintendent and athletic director at Noble. Within the above referenced and recorded conversation between Rolen, Smith and others (July 9, 2021), Smith admits having “the conversation with him (Finch)” prior to hiring him at Noble PS due to his issue of partying with female students.
Noble superintendent Frank Solomon reached out to Ashley Rolen in July of 2020, after a conversation with Rolen’s mother in which he learned of the reported sexual assaults of both Rolen and Jane by Allen and Finch. Finch stepped down at Noble PS shortly after.
After leaving Noble, Finch returned to Clinton, in 2020, where he is currently employed as a Spanish teacher and wrestling coach for both boys and girls teams. Finch continues to hold current teacher certifications in both Oklahoma and Missouri.
Part 2 of Harmful Coaching is coming soon.
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So glad this is finally getting the attention it deserves. The amount of individuals involved and the fact that NONE of them stepped up is disgusting. All these years later and they’re still not taking responsibility for their actions. Gross. Impatiently waiting for part 2. Thank you for publishing!
Wild, I went to Little Axe from elementary school all the way up until I had to move when my mom died the summer of my junior year in 2008. I had heard a lot of rumors about this but nothing substantiated. I was sent this today and read through all of it. Excited to read part two.