Heritage High student charged with sexual assault on campus

The Catoosa County Sheriff's Office arrested a Heritage High School student for allegedly forcing another student to have sex with him on campus.

The sheriff's office charged 18-year-old Drew Allen Wachter, of Water Mill Trace in Ringgold, Ga., with aggravated sexual battery Tuesday, and three days later he remained at the Catoosa County Jail without bond.

On Dec. 9, according to an incident report, a Heritage High School faculty member walked in on Wachter touching a girl. Sheriff Gary Sisk could not say Friday how old the girl is or what kind of relationship she had with Wachter before that day.

After the faculty member found them, according to the report, the girl said she wasn't the first person Wachter had assaulted. He reportedly touched a second girl during a bus ride earlier in the school year. According to an incident report, Wachter and that other girl were on a trip together in Tennessee when that incident allegedly occurred.

Sisk said Wachter has not been charged in connection to that alleged incident, only the one that happened on the Heritage High campus. The sheriff said investigators don't know specifically where in Tennessee that other incident occurred, and they will work with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on that case.

Concerning the Dec. 9 incident, Sisk declined comment on what happened before Wachter allegedly forced himself on the victim.

"We're not going to get into disclosing those facts because it is a pending case that is going to trial," Sisk said.

According to the report, members of Heritage High School contacted the parents of Wachter and the two victims. Then they contacted the sheriff's office. Catoosa County Schools spokeswoman Marissa Brower said the school also contacted Georgia's Division of Families and Children Services.

On Wachter's Facebook page, he lists himself as a senior at Heritage High School. Brower could not confirm his grade or the grades of the two alleged victims, only that all three were students at the school.

At least one of the three apparently has spent his final day there.

"The male student will not return to the Heritage High School campus," Brower said.

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or at tjett@timesfreepress.com.

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