RIPON (NBC 26) — A basketball coach at Ripon High School was charged with five felonies in Fond du Lac County Friday morning, including sexual assault of student by school staff.
Mihai Schnell-Harrison, who the Ripon Area School District said had served one season as the school's boys varsity basketball coach at Ripon High School, was arrested on Tuesday.
Schnell-Harrison appeared at the Fond du Lac County courthouse Friday morning. His charges include sexual assault of student by school staff, child enticement, exposing genitals, possession of child pornography and exposing a child to harmful material.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by NBC 26, Schnell-Harrison and a 16-year-old student at Ripon High School were using the social media app Snapchat to communicate privately since September.
Around late October, the victim states that conversations began to escalate and "started to get rather graphic and sexual in nature," according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that Schnell-Harrison attempted several times to get the victim to meet up with him at a hotel room, and in one occasion invited the victim over to his house for sexual intercourse. The victim did not feel safe accepting those invitations.
On November 6, Schnell-Harrison and the victim allegedly had an encounter in the school parking lot, where they engaged in sexual activity, the complaint says.
Ripon High School's assistant principal and athletic director Vincent Proposon gave a statement included in the complaint: "[Schnell-Harrison] was in fact a school staff member and the basketball coach for Ripon High School Boy's Varsity team at the time of November 6, 2024."
Stay with NBC 26 online and on-air as we develop this story.
