School officials in Cache County say they had no complaints about former Sky View High School teacher John A. Merkley before his teaching certificate was revoked by state officials.
The state Board of Education pulled Merkley's certificate Jan. 8 following his guilty plea to a second-degree felony child sex-abuse offense in Summit County.Merkley, who taught mathematics at Sky View, pleaded guilty to one of two counts of sexual abuse of a child. On Dec. 14, Merkley was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison and then was granted a stay and 36 months probation.
The court ruled he was to have no unsupervised contact with females under the age of 18.
Sky View Principal Myron Benson and Cache County School District Superintendent Larry Jensen said they knew of no complaints against Merkley at Sky View or in the school district.
Jensen said that when the school board was notified of the charges, it suspended Merkley with pay in November while the charges were being investigated by Summit County law officials and the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission.