Mr. Mayes, who declined to comment on the article, was charged with a misdemeanor sexual misconduct offense with a minor, although his lawyer told the court that the investigator had “a strong case of innocence “. The case was subsequently shelved, and prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to continue the case.
The school district, meanwhile, eventually avoided a lawsuit by agreeing to pay about half a million dollars to three students who said Mr. Mayes acted inappropriately.
Obedience comes first
In JROTC classrooms, instructors are not just teachers. They are senior officers and students are taught to follow the chain of command.
“Obedience is the first lesson every military man must learn,” says one of the program’s textbooks.
Victims of abuse said the power dynamics of the program made it harder to resist sexual assault.
One of them, Jordan Leloup, came from a troubled childhood of poverty and drugs in Tennessee and no longer had a relationship with his parents. He said he longed for something like “family.”
Jordan Leloup around 16 years old.
When JROTC instructor Michael Bass approached her one day during the 2013-14 school year to join the program at Hendersonville High School, she said, she had an attractive sales pitch. “We’re like a family,” he told her.
After joining, Mr. Bass, who was 44, invited her to dinner at his home, where he would socialize with his wife and children. Then one night, she said, she came to be alone with Mr. Bass, who had put two places on the table, with wine. He later took her to an upstairs room, where the first sexual assault took place. She was 17 years old.
After that, he said, Mr. Bass would tell him almost every day where to meet him in private, sometimes in a school storage room or in an office, where he would close a metal door. When she began to express reluctance, she said, he pressured her.
“Every time he told me I was ready or I met him somewhere, I had to be there,” he said. “If you don’t, there would be consequences.”
One night, when he threatened to explain the relationship to police, he said, Mr. Bass hinted that his time in the army had given her the skills that would allow her to kill her without anyone knowing.
Finally, Mrs. Leloup went to the police, who accused Mr. Bass, citing a recorded conversation in which he acknowledged a sexual relationship. He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated legal violation in 2019 and was sentenced to four years in prison.