Soldotna High teacher, who is also the KPEA union president, arrested for sexual abuse of minor

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Nathaniel E. Erfurth, a 34-year-old resident of Soldotna and high school teacher of government and history teacher at Soldotna High School, was arrested by the Alaska State Troopers, following a thorough investigation into allegations of sexual abuse involving a minor. The arrest was made by the Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Soldotna Major Crimes Unit.

The investigation revealed that Erfurth, who had been employed as a high school teacher at the time, had engaged in sexual abuse with a female juvenile multiple times between the years 2017 and 2019.

During this period, Erfurth held the position of Kenai Peninsula Education Association president. He has been on release from teaching, while serving the union.

Erfurth is a rising political figure on the Kenai Peninsula. In 2022, Erfurth donated $400 to the campaign of Anchorage Democrat Ted Eischeid, in his race for House District 22 against Republican Stanley Wright.

On April 3, the Alaska State Troopers received a report regarding the alleged sexual abuse, prompting the Soldotna Major Crimes Unit to launch an extensive investigation.

The investigators gathered evidence and interviewed witnesses to substantiate the claims against Erfurth.

Today’s arrest marks a significant step forward in the case, as Erfurth was remanded to the Wildwood Pretrial Facility on charges of Sexual Abuse of a Minor in the Second Degree and Sexual Abuse of a Minor in the Fourth Degree.

Although no additional victims has been found thus far, the Alaska State Troopers urge anyone with information that may be relevant to come forward and contact them at (907) 262-4453.

Erfurth was a political advocate for more funding in education, testifying in front of the Senate Education Committee in February in favor of raising the base student allocation — the permanent funding formula — for Alaska school districts. In a March commentary published in the Kenai Peninsula Clarion, he wrote, “Public education funding is an investment in our schools, students, businesses and local economy. Now is the time for the Alaska Legislature to pass a meaningful increase to the base student allocation.”

He also was active with trying to raise the BSA in House Finance last year and in 2021.

If convicted, Erfurth (pronounced Ur-furth) could face substantial penalties, including imprisonment and the possibility of being registered as a sex offender.

The KPEA executive board meets next on May 23 at 6:30 pm.

83 COMMENTS

      • Thank you for correcting Jimbob’s automatic association of child abuse with the Democratic Party. And I really mean that.

      • He donated hundreds to D candidates, and he is a union organizer. Not reasonable to assume he is nonpartisan or conservative.

        • Believe me, there are plenty of Republican child abusers out there too. This trope of associating teachers with being Democratic groomers and/or pedophiles is reprehensible, and people who promote the idea are shameless. Just remember: what goes around comes around.

          • Plenty is not most. The Democrat Party is a safe harbor for illegal aliens, LGBTQ, and now, …… pedophiles.

          • “Believe me, there are plenty of Republican child abusers out there too.” You know any actively promoting it?
            “This trope of associating teachers with being Democratic groomers and/or pedophiles is reprehensible, and people who promote the idea are shameless. Just remember: what goes around comes around.”
            mau-mau
            verb
            ˈmau̇-ˌmau̇
            mau-maued; mau-mauing; mau-maus
            transitive + intransitive

            now often offensive; see usage paragraph below
            : to intimidate (someone, such as an official) through hostile confrontation or threats usually for social or political gain
            Going downtown to mau-mau the bureaucrats got to be the routine practice in San Francisco.
            —Tom Wolfe

          • let’s just compromise and say most people who work in or around government are degenerate criminal psycopaths

        • Hm.

          I’ve been union most of my adult life. Also been management and have sat on both sides of the negotiating table.

          Have donated to both sides.

          Most folk consider me more of a John Bircher than an ordinary conservative.

          Just sayin’ be careful about automatic asociations. Then again, I grew up in the days when you could be a conservative Democrat; yes, the South was full of them.

          This Erfurth guy? Yeah, he’s probably only “unaffiliated” for political reasons though.

          • While IMO unions are generally problematic they do serve a purpose. That said, Trade unions are Distinctly different from public unions and also IMO public unions should be outlawed.

    • wow really, with a name like jimbob you probably married an inlaw, drive a pick em up truck and speak with a twang. am i close?

      of course not. these are not crimes associated with ones politcal stance. show some respect for yourself. dont reinforce my opinion of your ignorance.

      your sharp witty response is not glib nor a good display of IQ

      dignify yourself, drink cornmash, grab a chaw of tabaccie and love yer sister

  1. Okay, lets just dump more money into the school system and overlook the test scores and everything else that might be going on.

  2. I like Jim bob’s knee jerk reaction. So typical of conservatives. Good for Downing for educating

    • Yeah, but you know he’s a liberal puke. In the liberal’s minds, child grooming is just another step on the way to total indoctrination, Lucinda. But thanks for trying to throw up a defense for the indefensable. Now we know.

    • Lucinda, your typically disingenuous comment is just par for the course with you radical leftist extremists.

      Mr. Erfurth is the president of a teacher’s union. Further, he is documented as having contributed to a Democratic candidate in the last statewide election.

      Show me the president of ANY teacher’s union who is NOT a radical leftist, much less an actual conservative, and I will show you a three-legged, double-headed unicorn.

      • Another cut and paste job by Jefferson. Maybe consult your thesaurus to find some alternate wording for “radical leftist extremist”. I’m marking you down a full grade for overuse of the phrase and for lack of creativity.

        • But that’s what all you commies are, Radical Extreme Leftists. So wear that shoe, Troll. Wear it all day long!

        • Whidbey, the phrase that fits you and your political brethren to a “T”, “radical leftist extremist”, cannot be overused when referring to them, given their overpresence in the political arena nowadays. If the phrase bothers you, then too bad — if the radical leftist extremist shoe fits, then wear it. And it DOES fit.

          When you and your ilk stop being and acting like radical leftist extremists, then I will stop using the phrase. Until then, you need to wear the robe that has been cut to your exact dimensions.

    • She’s just being careful journalistically. Everyone around government and politics knows that most public employees and union reps hide behind registering NP. You learn not to pay any attention to their registration, just check to see who’ve they’ve given money to. And, by the way, they all lie.

      • Like the MAP minor attracted President!! They become teachers for access to lots of innocent kids on a regular basis.. Captive audience

        • Suzanne – I hate to see you go down the censoring path even though I usually disagree with Lucinda. Censoring speech is NEVER okay.

          • If you saw some of the comments I see, you might change your mind. I am trying to maintain a civil conversation here. People are welcome to take their ugliness to another place, but I’m not going to let it become a cesspool here. – sd

        • Bonus! That dude is a liar and has been nothing but a scourge on this board. A trolling POS that has never once suggested a possible solution but has focused exclusively on defecting upon the input of others.

          Change out of that stained wife beater, Lucinda. Empty the ash tray and try being constructive for once.

          @Whidbey Thedog you have an analytical perspective on the value of religion and some other issues but you have chosen some crap heroes and worse associates. Enjoy those fleas.

  3. Here’s my hot take: It was consensual between a (just guessing here) 16–17-year-old and now that he’s rising up in politics, it was time to let the cat out of the bag….. 5 years later. Please understand that I’m not condoning his behavior at all as it’s disgusting and illegal; however, I’d bet the farm that my conspiracy theory is correct, especially if it was a “one of”. No matter what, if proven guilty, he deserves the sentence that he gets.

    • Yep and I can see the lawyers lining up already. To make sure she gets money for her bad decision, from the already overwhelmed financial issues with the schools. takes two to tangle. Pay off/up state of Alaska so shell’ never have to work…….

    • At only 34 maybe he’s too young to remember Bartlett High and the Anchorage Daily News’ legendary Satch Carlson. Since Satch’s “consensual” liaison with a nubile young Bartlett student the laws have been changed and there is no such thing as a consensual relationship with someone over whom you have authority. Maybe the genius cut class that day when he was in Ed School.

      I agree that there is some sort of back story here that accounts for the several year delay between the liaison and the report to the AST. I long ago learned to not underestimate stupid so she could be trying to reach out and touch him, but it seems pretty stupid to bankrupt someone and send them to prison if you want something from them. I’m thinking there is some other story working here.

        • After my time; I wasn’t close enough to things to have any detailed knowledge. Superficially, it seems to be a straightforward statute of limitations case.

      • Delays in reporting occur quite often; any number of reasons why. Every case is unique as every person is.

        Sometimes it’s a “jilted lover”, sometimes the victim has been victimized again and it comes out during the other investigation, sometimes the victim goes into therapy and learns that it’s okay to talk about it.

        Sometimes, just sometimes, they find the courage to come forward and stand up for victims that won’t.

        Doubtful that there aren’t more victims out there. There’s a saying in the business “all rapists are serial.”

      • Actually not quite right regarding the position of authority matter. Pretty close, maybe in your syntax.

        The age of consent is 16, however, a person under 18 cannot provide knowing consent to a person who occupies a position of authority over them.

        The SAM laws do require some math and there are other derivations such as age differences between minors.

        Also, even though it’s not an issue in this matter, in older past cases there is often research required by a DAO to determine what statute of limitations was in effect at the time of offense.

        • I do pedantic with the best of them and I was trying to keep it simple. I actually didn’t like the effect of the “Satch Carlson Law” on my work. If we had a CO, cop, PO or somebody with coercive authority having sex with inmates, probationers, or others under supervision, you could count on them getting ratted out for it; fellow officers or other inmates, etc. wouldn’t tolerate forbidden fruits. Once it was made a crime, nobody would rat them out, so they became much harder to catch.

          • There was a PA in the med dept serving the Dept of Corrections in Anchorage. His name was Clarence Bullock. He was slipping the lumber to at least one inmate and was bounced for same. That was 2007 and if memory serves he wound up doing a little time over that choice. I think his wife bailed out on him too.

            ‘https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2007/jun/15/alaska-doc-liable-for-rape-of-federal-prisoner-by-prison-doctor/

  4. Well its comforting to know he at least meets all of the requirements to be in charge of the teachers union. Such a comforting feeling to know our children are in the “good hands” of this clown consistently trying to con more money out of the taxpayers for what? More after school programs to further his self pleasure educating our children. He should be castrated and enrolled at spring creek educational facility in Seward.

  5. Was it little boys or little girls? Or, maybe both?
    All of these pedophiles hiding out down in the Kenai. The cops are getting a whiff of reality.
    Plenty more to come.

  6. Gotta remember where Ted Eicheid gets his donations from as well. If he is supporting Democrats at that level of support I dont need to know what his registration is. His donations speaks for itself.

  7. All the Troopers need to do is infiltrate the teacher’s unions and their staff, and they will solve 90% of the pedophile cases in Alaska.
    The other 10% can be found in Juneau during session. See the Byron Mallot files. In the 80’s, underaged Pages were the subject of pedophile inquires involving legislators. Only the names and faces change.

    • The troopers will never investigate on their own because they know the prosecutors are corrupt and rarely prosecute unless forced to.

  8. Ya, pretty sickening how many of these scum are hiding in public education , it’s time that Education gets totall gutted and start over , this crap seemed to start in the late 80s early 90 s where both men and women seem to think it’s just fine to groom students, these people should not only have intense background checks , they should be interveiwed annually so we can see where their minds are at, boy how education has fallen since the 70 and 80s when this stuff was rare or basicly un heard of, now it’s common place in schools! I guess now days when you get your teaching certs. it includes a free pass to fondle the kids, sickening and pathetic times!

    • It was common enough by the ’80s that “The Police” had a hit song, “Don’t Stand So Close” about a male teacher and a female student.

  9. Question: Will this teacher and union leader lose his teaching certificate? Will he be reported to the state’s Professional Teacher Practices Commission? Or will he be protected? Let’s wait and see.

    • Took me about 15 seconds to come up with a union defense for him; he was on release time from his teaching duties so he could do the incredibly demanding job of being a union president, which is nothing more than a figurehead/political position. Since he wasn’t teaching he had no custodial or coercive authority over her, wasn’t on SD time as such, and consequently the “Satch Carlson Law” doesn’t apply.

      Hardly a man is now alive that remembers the last time a school district adequately represented a management position in arbitration or before a court, so I like his odds for walking on it.

  10. I would say that Mr. Erfurth would identify as a MAP, or Minor Attracted Person. As covered under the (+) symbol after LGBTQ. In the old days, we would just call him a pervert, but I was told recently that word can’t be used anymore

  11. Nice job to all you pedo apologists. You people will have front row seats in hell next to your friends.

  12. If it’s proven , he will more then likely just move out of the state like most of these these scums do, then he will just continue his behavior in some other district elsewhere, the Teachers union openly condones this kinda nonsense, , pretty sick bunch of people!

    • There’s an opening in the Yucaipa Calimesa Joint Unified School District.
      “A California teacher who was once named “teacher of the year” has been arrested for allegedly having sex with an underage student. Law enforcement authorities arrested 38-year-old Tracy Vanderhulst, a math teacher at Yucaipa High School, on Thursday night around 11 PM. Vanderhulst was charged with statutory rape.”

  13. In the US on average over 1 school teacher, administrator or advisor is charged with these types of crimes. How many unreported or covered up? This is from the NEA.

  14. Let’s cut to what’s really important:

    Is he trans, gay, bi, or other? What are his favorite 27 pronouns?

    Gotta know these things since they will feature prominently in why nothing happens to him.

  15. It’s fascinating how when this occurs in the Church, the usual progressive suspects are all over assigning blame to faith and the clergy.

    But when it’s their sacred cow of public education, the crickets make more noise than they do.

  16. Typos corrected…… In a matter like this, I believe the pursuit of truth is the paramount issue. Accordingly, I would leave the matter of the accused’s politics out of it until after adjudication. That said, it is inappropriate to say as this article does, “The investigation revealed that Erfurth, who had been employed as a high school teacher at the time, had engaged in sexual abuse with a female juvenile multiple times between the years 2017 and 2019.” Such doubtless statements imply no trial is even necessary. Why not say the investigation revealed evidence to showing the accused may have engaged…..?

    With this kind of crime, with the incentive of a multi-$million civil suit, we should want both sides of the story to be heard. It is a truism that teenage girls can sometimes be very conniving.

  17. There is a tenet of faith which is a popular custom found entrenched in western religions. It is something that should be considered. Jesus is setting matters straight among many people and it will be something to see. Mariology is a concept, a tenet, of some alleged Christian arrangements wherein femininity is of exaggerated importance. We find it expressed variously even in legal practices. Some literally worship the virginity of Mary, Jesus Mother. This is well meaning but exaggerated. Almost all women become birthers. So, practically speaking what is this exaggeration of an asexual state which is preliminary to marriage and founding of families which evidently knows no diminished legal boundaries. No one gets a pedestal. Everyone must be reasonable including marriagable females.

  18. To: AK4liberation

    I think it easy to say, “let’s just compromise and say most people…are degenerate….” Given all that is going on in the USA today, this seems a ‘more accurate’ statement.

    Caio,

  19. This pedophile bottom- feeder has been on the radar of law enforcement for awhile. They finally got the goods on him AFTER he started working for the teacher’s union. These sickos are intentionally trying to ruin our kids. They need to be stopped.

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