The former ceramics director at Jansen Art Center in Lynden has been charged with six felony counts of sexual abuse in Cascade County, Montana, where he held a teaching position in 2021.
William James Harning, who went by the name Wil James at the center, was suspended on Sept. 12 after he was arrested by U.S. Marshals from the Violent Offenders Task Force. He was booked into Whatcom County jail and released Sept. 13 on bail.
The art center terminated Harning, 32, when leaders there learned about the extent of the charges about five days after he was arrested, according to Board President Adrienne Stewart. He began working at Jansen in September 2022.
Harning was arrested in the art center, with either staff or students present in the room, said Stewart. She said they immediately asked him for his keys to the facility and told him not to return. He complied, she said.
Harning is facing charges in Cascade County, Montana for having “knowingly possessed any visual or print medium, including a medium by use of electronic communication in which a child is engaged in sexual conduct, actual or simulated.” Records show investigators found “sexually explicit images” of children ranging in age from 5 to 16 years on his cell phone.
Stewart said the center’s leaders told people who witnessed the arrest that they had placed Harning on leave and prevented him from reentering the building.
Stewart said they also informed the staff about the arrest and subsequent termination, and they also notified students signed up for Harning’s classes about the change of instructors.
She stressed that Harning’s arrest was related to his past, not to something that happened at the center and added there had been no complaints about Harning in the year he worked in Lynden. Stewart said she did not know why he went by the name “Wil James” at the center.
Montana allegations
According to Montana court documents, on Dec. 14, 2021 police were informed that Harning, then in an art teacher position at Great Falls High School in Great Falls, sent a picture of his genitals to a 17-year-old student. That day, detectives seized his phone and obtained a warrant to search it. Great Falls School District Superintendent Tom Moore said Harning was placed on administrative leave after the incident.
Due to a “backlog of devices,” the court documents stated the phone was not searched until May 2023, and the images were certified as sexually explicit in August by a pediatric nurse practitioner.
Carl Jensen, Harning’s lawyer in Cascade County, declined to discuss the case. “I don’t answer questions from reporters,” he said.
When asked about Harning’s use of “Wil James,” Jensen said, he had no comment “one way or the other.”
Harning pleaded not guilty to all charges at an Oct. 4 arraignment. He appeared on Zoom and negotiated to have his bail release take place in Washington, as he told the court he no longer has ties to Montana.
Harning’s teaching license suspended
Great Falls School District Superintendent Tom Moore said recently that Harning resigned in 2021 within 24 hours of being put on leave and never returned to the school. Harning’s license to teach Art K-12 in Montana was suspended, according to the Montana Office of Public Instruction.
Kory Larsen, the chief criminal deputy county attorney for Cascade County, said Harning was not charged for sending the photo to the 17-year-old because the case would have just been a misdemeanor, as the age of consent in Montana is 16. Instead, detectives sent his phone to be searched and have now charged him with six felonies.
When Harning was hired to direct Jansen Art Center’s ceramics programs and teach courses for those age 16 and up, the center ran a background check on him and nothing came up, Stewart said. She added the process is standard for employees who would work with children.
The Jansen Art Center, shown on Front Street in Lynden. (Finn Wendt/Cascadia Daily News)
Larsen said he doesn’t think anything would have come up on Harning if someone ran a background check before August 2023, as no charges had been filed yet.
The 17-month wait between Harning’s device being seized and images being found is not an “uncommon occurrence” in Montana, Larsen said.
Emily Flower, press secretary for Attorney General Austin Knudsen at the Montana Department of Justice, wrote in a statement to Cascadia Daily News that digital forensics investigations are “extremely time-consuming” and can take from 72 hours to 23 years.
Montana now has four agents searching devices, after Knudsen successfully advocated for another Internet Crimes Against Children investigator and an internal restructuring freed up another agent.
Hiring processes being reviewed
Stewart said the Jansen Center’s board was not intimately involved in Harning’s hiring so they do not know what he disclosed about his background. But after Harning’s arrest, Stewart said the board took a detailed look at hiring processes.
“It is a tricky situation and we have taken this opportunity to look at our policies and procedures and we confirmed that they are sound,” she said. “And there’s nothing that we could have done to prevent this.”
“I think it would be fair to say too that the incident was devastating to everybody involved,” said Sue Sharpe, a member of the Jansen Board of Directors. “Our interim director at the time kept pretty good tabs with people in terms of sharing the information we had and ensuring the action that we could take as a board, which I give Adrienne and the board credit. Everything moved very quickly.”
Stewart said the center is a very special place, which is why they “protect it so carefully.”
“[We were] really trying to respond to the circumstances we were in with the goal of ensuring that the art center was really protected,” Sharpe said. “The challenge is we can’t speak to the charges and we can’t speak to what’s happening there. We’re not privy to that. It’s not like it was an internal issue, it was an external issue that took place. Not to say that isn’t unsettling, because it is. I think at this point we don’t know anything more than that.”
Included in Harning’s bail conditions are requirements to not have contact with any individual under 18, to not frequent places children congregate and to not access any pornographic content. Harning is also prohibited from having employment or recreational pursuit that involves supervision of children.
Larsen said there are no identified victims in the Montana case yet, but on Aug. 14 Internet Crimes Against Children Detective Scott Bambeneck requested the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children review a total of 370 images recovered from Harning’s phone to see if they could identify any victims.
Larsen also said they don’t know where Harning obtained the images. “At this point, we don’t believe any of them are local,” he said.
Harning’s omnibus hearing is set for Nov. 8, his pre-status hearing is set for Jan. 17 and his jury trial is set for Jan. 29.
