breck082208

Breck School hockey coach reinstated as gym teacher

He had been on paid leave; woman's charges of harassment were dropped.

Star Tribune

Last update: August 21, 2008 - 11:34 PM

A prep school girls' hockey coach and gym teacher is back teaching at Breck School after prosecutors dropped charges that he harassed a woman by repeatedly lurking outside her house.

Robert Donald Little, 53, will return to his position as physical education instructor at Breck School in Golden Valley and has been present at teachers' workshops since Monday, spokeswoman Jill Field said.

She said the school will determine next week whether he will return to the helm of the school's varsity hockey team.

Little was placed on paid administrative leave from the school when the harassment and trespassing charges were filed earlier this year.

The harassment charge was filed after Anna Genich, 35, complained that Little repeatedly stood outside her apartment, flashed his headlights in her window and left gifts including a sex toy at her door. The charge was dropped last week after authorities determined that the interaction between them was consensual.

Genich said last week that she is disappointed in prosecutors' decision to drop the charges and plans to discuss her next course of action with her victim advocate. Genich maintained that she did not entice Little to stand outside her window and that she accepted his gifts but did not immediately call police out of fear and desperation.

Little's trespassing charge will be dropped in a year as long as he commits no similar offenses.

Field said school officials waited until the legal process was over before conducting an internal investigation. Classes at the school begin on Monday.

ABBY SIMONS