Brielle Meyer

Court documents detailed the student had told her sister she had lost her virginity to her teacher, Paul Masko.

^{Photo credit: WZZM 13}

Note: This is a story I wrote for WZZM 13 in February of 2025. The original can be found here.

RAVENNA, Mich. — On Feb. 7, a special education teacher from Ravenna High School was arrested and charged for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a student. Now, 13 ON YOUR SIDE is learning more about what led up to Paul Masko’s arrest after obtaining court documents from Masko’s probable cause hearing.

A detective with Grand Haven Public Safety testified that on Jan. 30, 2024, they had been contacted by a detective from the Muskegon County Sheriff’s Department.

The Muskegon detective alerted the Grand Haven detective that they were looking into a report from Children and Protective Services regarding a 16-year-old special education student and her teacher.

Masko, from Grand Haven, had allegedly begun talking with the student, from the Muskegon area, last year. Then, in the fall of 2024, detectives said the two had started a relationship.

Detectives alleged Masko had driven the student to his house where they had sex. Detectives alleged this happened twice, though they did not know exactly when the two instances had occurred.

The Muskegon detective had also advised the Grand Haven detective that he had spoken with the student’s older sister about the relationship. The sister had told the Muskegon detective that the student told her she had been to Masko’s house where they had sex.

When detectives interviewed the 16-year-old student, she spoke to them about a Spotify playlist her and Masko had created together which was comprised of love songs. When asked about the things she had told her sister, the student told detectives she had only mentioned having a crush on Masko.

Detectives asked the student about telling her sister she was no longer a virgin, the student told detectives she didn’t want to talk about that. She also said she had never been to Masko’s house.

In a later interview with detectives, the student’s sister told detectives that the student had told her she had once taken Masko’s phone into the bathroom with her at Ravenna High School. The student told her sister that while in the bathroom she used Masko’s phone to take pictures of herself. The sister told detectives the photos were of the student’s bare chest.

The sister also told detectives that the student had said Masko’s wife found the photos on his phone, she estimated that had been in Nov. 2024.

On Jan. 31, detectives had obtained search warrants for both Masko and the student’s cell phones as well as for Masko’s home. That same day, they met Masko at the school where they spoke with him.

During that conversation, they asked Masko questions about his relationship with the student. He told detectives that he and the student would speak through school emails and Google Meets. When detectives asked if they ever spoke outside of Google Meets he said they also spoke on TikTok.

Detectives asked Masko if he had ever been to the student’s house, he said he had been just a few days prior, after the student’s initial forensic interview with detectives.

When detectives asked Masko if he had been anywhere outside of school together he told detectives, “no, we don’t have that kind of relationship yet.”

He told detectives the student had never been to his home. When asked about her ever having his phone he said she had, as he often leaves it sitting out on his desk. However, he denied knowing anything about her doing anything inappropriate with his phone.

When detectives specifically asked if she had ever taken any inappropriate pictures on his phone Masko said he had not seen any pictures. Detectives informed him that they knew his wife had found a photo on his phone of the student.

Masko said he had deleted the photo and did not remember it, he then said the student had “maybe exposed her breasts.” He told detectives he estimated that had been around Oct. 2024.

Later, on Jan. 31, detectives went to the students house to execute the search warrant on her cell phone. Nobody was home so they left, then later that day they returned to find Masko’s vehicle at the home. He was in the drivers seat and the student was in the passenger seat.

Masko told detectives he wanted to speak with the student behind closed doors. Detectives asked him “at what point did he think this was a good idea,” and then advised he was to have no contact with the student or her family.

A few days after that confrontation, the student’s mom reached out to detectives to inform them that her daughter had stayed at Masko’s house the weekend of Jan. 17. The mother told detectives she had been told they spent the weekend cooking dinner and watching movies. The student had also told her mother that Masko had let her drive in a school parking lot.

Detectives searched the students phone, which they said showed that on Jan. 17 she had connected to the same wifi network as Masko, the network was in the immediate vicinity of Masko’s home. In their search of Masko’s phone, they said they found child sexually abusive material images of the student.

Data on the photos they found showed they had been taken during school hours at Ravenna High School in May, September and October of 2024.

In a second interview with the student, she did tell detectives she had been to Masko’s house and shared the same details with them that her mother had about what they had done. When asked about the photos, she told detectives nobody else had them.

After all of this information was given in court the court found probable cause to believe the crimes were committed. Masko has been charged with four charges in relation to his relationship with the student.

Those charges are two charges of Posession of Child Sexually Abusive Material, a four year felony and two charges of Using a Computer to Commit a Crime, a seven year felony.

Ravenna High School placed Masko on administrative leave on Jan. 31, when they were made aware of the investigation. On Feb. 7, he was arrested and also resigned from his position.

Masko is being held on a $500,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned on Feb. 13.

Anyone with information related to this incident or others is asked to contact Grand Haven Public Safety at (616) 842-2460 or the non-emergency dispatch number at 1-800-249-0911.