Windy Hager and an interesting example of how they do things differently over there: the 16 year old Hager has just got married to her 40 year old cross-country coach, Brenton Wuchae.
An interesting way of dealing with an "inappropriate relationship" between a teacher and a pupil, don’t you think?
Monday, Brent Wuchae, a 40-year-old cross-country coach and science
teacher, married 16-year-old South Brunswick student Windy Hager
shortly before, or after, formally resigning from the school district.
A marriage license on record at the Brunswick County Register of Deeds
office notes the time of license approval as 12:02 p.m. Superintendent
Dr. Katie McGee said Wuchae hand-delivered his resignation to the
district’s central office “around noon.”
Wuchae had been on paid administrative leave since May 3 following an undisclosed incident on campus.
As Windy Hager is 16, her parents, Dennis and Betty Hager had to give their consent. Not, particularly, willingly it seems:
Since October, Betty and her husband, Dennis, have fought school
leaders on what the couple called an unwillingness to take action
against Wuchae.
The Hagers claimed then, and have maintained, that Wuchae, a nearby
neighbor, had developed an inappropriate friendship with their
daughter.
They contend the school system failed them when they asked
administrators to intervene and help keep Wuchea away from their
teenager.
The Hagers signed a consent form Monday to allow Windy to marry Wuchae.
Under North Carolina law, a person under the age of 18 must have
parents’ written permission to wed.
Betty said Tuesday that Windy’s intention to marry Wuchae came as a
shock, but she and Dennis agreed to sign a consent form because they
didn’t know what else to do.
“We have tried everything. We have contacted every agency – the Oak
Island police department, the sheriff’s department, the school system.
We couldn’t get a temporary restraining order against him. The school
board wasn’t going to help or wasn’t going to tell us anything,” Betty
said. “This man was not going to stay away from our child and she
wasn’t going to stay away from him.”
One interesting side effect of the marriage is that, if there had indeed been anything improper going on (like statutory rape for example), as his now wife Windy Hager cannot be forced to testify against Brenton Wuchae.
Family "friends" seem to think that it was all rather creepy:
Longtime friends of the Hager family Kim and
Scott Sutton of Catawba County said Windy’s association with Wuchae
began shortly after Wuchae moved to South Brunswick High School in 2004
and began coaching the girls cross country team. Wendy was 14 at the
time and had just recently moved with her family from Catawba County
and attended South Brunswick Middle School.
Kim said that when
she and her husband came from Catawba County to visit the Hagers on
several occasions they were often disturbed by how Windy and Wuchae
behaved around each other.
During visits with the Hagers, Kim
said she saw Windy and Wuchae jogging together alone on the weekends
and flirting on the beach in a manner that made Kim feel repulsed and
skeptical about behavior she described as inappropriate.
"She didn’t have a lot of friends and that’s what he took advantage of," Kim said of how Wuchae interacted with Windy.
There is a certain amusement to be had from this report from last November:
Windy Hager understands the strength to finish the race comes from
within, yet she attributes much of her motivation to South Brunswick
cross country coach Brent Wuchae.
“He’s very encouraging. He’s always telling us how proud he is,” the
South Brunswick sophomore said. “I’m proud of where I finished but he
seems to be even more proud of me. He’s always been encouraging.
That’s what makes him a great coach. He’s always motivated us; he’s always out there helping us.”
And for those interested, here’s a photograph of Windy Hager Wuchae. Slightly unfortunate that this is the only one I could find as the photographer really doesn’t seem to have done her any favours with that light.
Still, here’s to the happy couple, eh? Many happy returns and all that.
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