Former Ringgold guidance counselor charged with having sex with student
Rostraver police escort former Ringgold School District guidance counselor Lianne Danko to her Thursday arraignment on charges she had sex with a high school student while she was his counselor.
Lianne Danko
Ringgold School District administrators became suspicious of a relationship a guidance counselor was having with a high school football player after learning she was at a game wearing a team sweatshirt bearing his last name, Rostraver police said.
A co-worker of the former counselor, Lianne Danko, reported she was “stunned” to have witnessed Danko approach the player and embrace him while he was leaving the football field in November, Rostraver police stated in court records charging Danko Thursday with institutional sexual assault involving the 18-year-old student.
“Miss Danko crossed the lines of professionalism and the statutory boundary which constitutes institutional sexual assault,” Rostraver police Chief Greg Resetar said at a Thursday news conference before Danko, 33, of Rostraver was arraigned in the case.
Rostraver police were asked Feb. 18 to investigate Danko, of 246 Rolling Hill Farm Drive, after the other guidance counselor, Laura Manko, raised other concerns about the situation to her high school principal. Manko said Danko purchased a shirt and socks for the Ringgold senior and brought them to school in October for him to wear to a game where players were planning to wear pink clothes. Manko also reported seeing inappropriate text messages between Danko and the student, information that was shown to her by another student.
Ringgold police Chief Clayton Shell interviewed the senior Feb. 17, and he confessed to having sex twice with Danko, once on Nov. 14 and again about a week later, in his car in a park-and-ride lot near the Rostraver exit from Interstate 70, police stated in the affidavit.
Danko was the student’s guidance counselor, and he said he visited her for advice at the beginning of this school year about problems he was having with his girlfriend. He said he visited her nearly every day and Danko and he also shared many text messages, the court record states.
The student allegedly told police Danko said he was attractive and also began to tell him about problems she was having with her family in September or October.
Danko then asked him Oct. 29 to drive her from a parade in Monongahela to the high school in Carroll Township. He said Danko held his hand and rubbed his thigh during the ride to the school, the records showed. He also claimed Danko texted him a photo of her wearing lingerie and instructed him to quickly delete the image from his phone, the document indicates.
The two began talking about “hanging out” and allegedly decided to meet at the park-and-ride lot. Police said the student related to them Danko told him not to tell anyone about their relationship because she would lose her job. The student also said “Danko told him they could have their own place, and after he graduates they can make it official,” police stated in the affidavit.
Police said Danko and the student have ended their relationship.
Danko, who was hired at Ringgold in August 2007, resigned from her job shortly after a letter from the superintendent was posted on the district’s website in February alerting parents of an investigation of an employee accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student.
Ringgold Superintendent Karen Polkabla said the district took the “appropriate actions” by removing Danko from the high school during the investigation and by notifying Rostraver police about the accusations against her.
District Judge Joseph Dalfonso in Monessen released Danko from custody after her mother posted 10 percent of her $50,000 bond.
Danko’s attorney, David J. Shrager of Pittsburgh, said he planned to “vigorously defend the charges” against his client.
“These are very serious charges,” Shrager said. “My client has no previous criminal record and is well-liked and respected.”