A former Waunakee educator now facing sexual assault and child pornography charges was allowed to quietly resign from the Madison School District in 2006 after a female student accused him of inappropriately touching her leg, according to interviews and public records.

And a May 2006 agreement forbade Madison officials from notifying the state Department of Public Instruction of the girl 's accusations against Anthony Hirsch, who was a special education assistant at La Follette High School.

Hirsch, 32, of DeForest, was charged last month with possessing child pornography he allegedly bought and downloaded from Web sites and with having a sexual relationship with a student about five years ago while working at La Follette.

The charges -- one count each of repeated sexual assault of a child and possession of child pornography -- carry a maximum sentence of 85 years in prison and extended supervision.

Hirsch was an educational assistant for special education students at Waunakee Middle School until he submitted his resignation on Jan. 9 after he was arrested, Waunakee Superintendent Chuck Pursell has said. Hirsch worked at La Follette from 1998 until April 2006.

Reporting rules

State law requires school districts to notify DPI whenever a "person resigns and the administrator has a reasonable suspicion that the resignation relates to the person having engaged in immoral conduct. "

It defines immoral conduct as behavior "contrary to commonly accepted moral or ethical standards and that endangers the health, safety, welfare or education of any pupil. "

Madison Superintendent Art Rainwater said Thursday that Hirsch 's conduct in 2006 didn 't meet that threshold to trigger notifying DPI.

"The district agreed to the conditions set forth in the memorandum in return for Mr. Hirsch 's resignation because while the district had concerns arising out of Mr. Hirsch 's conduct, the conduct did not rise to the level of terminable offense, " Rainwater said in a statement.

"The district agreed that it would not file a report with the Department of Public Instruction regarding Mr. Hirsch because the conduct at issue was not of the nature that required a report be made. "

The agreement required the district to provide potential employers with a "neutral reference " of Hirsch limited to title, dates of employment and salary. It was signed by Hirsch, Madison Teachers Inc. Executive Director John Matthews and district Director of Labor Relations Duane McCrary.

Reference check

Since Hirsch 's resignation, Madison officials haven 't received any reference checks from any potential employers regarding Hirsch, Rainwater 's statement said.

But WKOW-TV, which first reported the 2006 allegation, quoted Pursell saying the Waunakee district checked Hirsch 's background and references before hiring him, and the district was "not given that information " about the circumstances of Hirsch 's departure.

Rainwater insisted that a prospective employer would have been warned away by the neutral reference. "We would have just said, He worked here from this time to this time. ' That says something in and of itself. "

Allegation investigated

Rainwater said it 's very easy now to make judgments about what the district should have done. "But at the time, we did not think we had anywhere near enough evidence to terminate him, " Rainwater said. "So when he offered to resign -- and he did resign, he was not fired -- we were relieved. "

Rainwater said the Madison district had no knowledge of any activity related to child pornography or a sexual relationship with a La Follette student. The alleged victim in that case, who is now 19, said the relationship began during her freshman year and ended in her sophomore year.

The only allegations the district investigated involved Hirsch allegedly touching the exposed leg of a La Follette student and patting her on the buttocks with rolled up papers, Rainwater said. Hirsch and the girl differed in their accounts of the incidents.

"He said one thing, she said something else, " Rainwater said. "We did not think that those two incidents rose to a level of immoral conduct that needed to be reported to DPI. "

The district has a long history of reporting incidents to DPI, he said. "We 're very strict about it. "

The district dealt with Hirsch in the best way it knew how given the facts at the time, Rainwater said.

"In the context of what we know now, we would take a whole different approach, " he said.

Contact Doug Erickson at derickson@madison.com or 252-6149. Contact Andy Hall at ahall@madison.com or 252-6136.