The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office has concluded its review of two unrelated investigations involving potential violations of the mandatory reporting requirements by employees of two school districts in Lancaster County and is pursuing multiple criminal charges in one of them. 

Three Manheim Central High School students have been criminally charged for their roles in multiple hazing incidents alleged to have taken place in a school locker room earlier this year and a former teacher has also been charged with failing to report allegations that the incidents involved indecent exposure to Pennsylvania ChildLine as is mandated by law for someone in his position. 

Separately, a review of the actions taken by Manheim Township High School employees determined that they did not willfully fail to report an incident involving possible indecent exposure that is alleged to have occurred between members of the school’s lacrosse team while out of state.

“Both of these cases should provide a springboard for conversations with our kids about how conduct like this can not only have negative impacts on others’ mental health but can also result in serious consequences for those who take part in it,” said District Attorney Heather Adams.

MULTIPLE CHARGES FILED IN MANHEIM CENTRAL HAZING INCIDENT

Former Manheim Central High School teacher Jared Thomas Shearer, of the 200 block of Pennshire Drive in Lancaster Township, was charged with failing to report suspected child abuse.

Two students, both of whom are juveniles, were each charged with stalking, simple assault, hazing, false imprisonment, theft by extortion, indecent exposure, ethnic intimidation and conspiracy to commit stalking. One of the juveniles was also charged with an additional count of theft by extortion while the other was also charged with an additional count of simple assault.

A third student, 18-year-old Nathan James Haldeman, of the 600 block of Stiegel Valley Road in Penn Township, was charged with two counts of stalking, one count of conspiracy to commit stalking, two counts of indecent exposure and a single count of false imprisonment. Haldeman was a student at the time and over the age of 18.

Haldeman and the other juvenile defendants are accused of harassing and repeatedly committing inappropriate conduct toward multiple teenage boys in a football-only school locker room at Manheim Central High School in April. All of the alleged abuse occurred during school hours.

Two students disclosed the abuse to Shearer, 35, in mid-April. Shearer, who at the time was a teacher and assistant football coach at the school, is accused of failing to report the indecent exposure allegations to Pennsylvania ChildLine as is mandated by law for someone in his position. 

“I want to urge educators and school district employees in Lancaster County to always act with a child-protective mentality as opposed to a school-protective mentality,” Adams said. “Additionally, it’s time for the state legislature to expand our current child welfare laws to classify hazing as a reportable form of child abuse. As we’ve seen here and elsewhere in the Commonwealth, hazing causes real harm to its victims. The legislature should act to better protect victims of hazing and ensure that mandated reporters are held accountable when they fail to report any act that constitutes hazing.”

The hazing is alleged to have begun when the juvenile defendants began demanding that several of the victims pay them cash in order to access the locker room, telling them that the payment was because the victims were Black. Over the next several weeks the juvenile defendants continued demanding more money from the victims, which they referred to as a “Black tax.” 

When one of the victims refused to pay the money, the two juvenile defendants are alleged to have wrapped him in an extension cord and hit him multiple times with elastic exercise bands. The 16-year-old victim later told school administrators they estimated that the defendants struck him with the bands at least three times a week for an entire month. 

In another instance, Haldeman and the others are accused of holding the same victim down against his will in a locker room toilet stall as they sprayed an unknown aerosol substance on him—a tactic the defendants referred to as the “gas chamber.” The defendants also exposed themselves to the victim and rubbed their genitals on him while they held him down. 

On multiple other occasions, Haldeman intentionally stood close to the victim as he changed clothes in the locker room. 

Another victim reported that Haldeman and one of the juvenile defendants “danced” around him nude as he changed his clothes in the locker room. The two defendants were so close to the victim that their genitals rubbed against him, he later told school administrators. 

Other school officials claimed they remained unaware of the sexual aspects of the allegations until mid-May, when one of the victims’ parents reported it to the school’s principal. After speaking with a victim and several witnesses, the principal immediately filed a ChildLine report and directly contacted local police. 

An investigation as to whether any other mandated reporters may have failed in their duties to report the abuse to ChildLine remains open.

In a verbal statement to school administrators in mid-May, after they became aware of the extent of the allegations, Haldeman claimed he had “messed” with one of the victims out of jealousy. Haldeman admitted in the same statement to having rubbed his exposed genitals on the victim.

Manheim Borough Police Officer Aaron Szulborski filed the charges.

Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick will prosecute the cases. 

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. 

NO CRIMINAL FAILURE TO REPORT MANHEIM TOWNSHIP INDECENT ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS

A Safe2Say tip submitted to the Manheim Township School District alleged that a member of the high school’s lacrosse team had been restrained while being subjected to indecent exposure by a teammate while on a sports-related field trip in Stow, Ohio, in April 2024. The tip alleged that a video was shared of an unidentified juvenile on the team being held down while another named juvenile exposed himself and possibly committed an indecent assault.

Safe2Say reports are received by a 24/7 system run by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. After a tip is received it is sent electronically to the relevant school district. 

The initial Safe2Say tip contained an allegation that an identifiable child was subjected to indecent exposure—an act of child abuse under the Child Protective Services Law—and was therefore required to be reported. However, failure to file a mandated report can only result in criminal charges when the Commonwealth can prove that a person did so willfully—that is, knowing that they were obligated to do so. 

In this case, the District Attorney’s Office determined that the school district quickly reported the incident to law enforcement, then reasonably relied on the advice of their attorney, who failed to advise them of their obligations to report the allegations to ChildLine and instead told them they should move forward with a Title IX investigation. The school district’s actions and their reliance on their attorney’s advice clearly shows that they did not willfully disregard their obligations under the law to report.

Additionally, pursuant to the Child Protective Services Law, failure to report suspected child abuse is also not criminally actionable if a mandated reporter notifies law enforcement of the suspected abuse in lieu of a ChildLine report. In this case, local police were quickly contacted, but the police department in Ohio that had jurisdiction of the offense was not notified after the parents of the alleged victim told the school district that they did not want any criminal charges filed. When the school district became aware that a ChildLine report should have been filed, they again asked the child’s parents if they wished to facilitate a report to police in Ohio, but the family again declined.

“Though this case will not result in any criminal charges, mandatory reporters should always remember that the purpose of the Child Protective Services Law is to promote a system that prefers over-investigation of unfounded reports to the under-reporting of child abuse,” Adams said. “My office plans on reaching out to schools with more information on what is expected of mandated reporters.”

The tip in question was received by the school district in May 2024, the same day it was anonymously submitted. The District Attorney’s Office became aware of the tip in January 2025 and began investigating whether the Child Protective Services Law had been violated.

Throughout the investigation it was determined that the school district employee who received the tip immediately alerted four other school district employees and called the Manheim Township Police Department to ask who would investigate the alleged activity, which had occurred in Ohio. Police informed the employee that law enforcement in Ohio would have jurisdiction to investigate the incident.

The school district quickly conducted interviews with members of the lacrosse team and identified the alleged victim of the Safe2Say report. An employee of the school district then called a parent of the alleged victim to inform them of the content of the Safe2Say tip. 

During the phone call, the child’s parent told the school district that they did not want to press criminal charges. 

Also on the same day the tip was received, a school district employee reached out to the school district’s solicitor and informed them of the details and developments and sought additional guidance. The solicitor confirmed that the district should initiate a Title IX investigation but failed to advise them of their obligations to report the allegations to ChildLine.