photo by: Journal-World File

Caleb Rahmeier is pictured in December 2023 as he accepted the Lawrence Schools Foundation’s $5,000 “Dedication to Education” award.

An arrest affidavit for a former award-winning paraprofessional in the Lawrence school district alleges that the para inappropriately touched a middle school boy, asked him to undress and gave him dozens of late-night car rides.

Caleb Zachary Rahmeier, the former para who was honored in December 2023 with the Lawrence Schools Foundation’s “Dedication to Education” award, is facing a felony count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and a misdemeanor count of contributing to a child’s misconduct. Both charges relate to the same child, who was a West Middle School student between 14 and 16 years old. The offense date is listed as July 1, 2023.

Allegations in the arrest affidavit, which have not been proved in court, indicate that the boy told West Middle School Vice Principal Amanda Faunce over a year after the offense date that he and Rahmeier had been messaging each other on the online platform Discord since 2022, when the boy was in the seventh grade. The two talked and played video games like Fortnite online, but by the summer of 2023, the interactions had escalated to Rahmeier helping the boy sneak out of his house, the boy said, and during one late-night car ride, Rahmeier allegedly touched the boy’s thighs and asked him to take off his pants.

“No one would know if I did anything to you,” the boy said Rahmeier told him, along with assurances that it wasn’t “gay” or “weird.” The boy, however, refused to go along with the request, demanded to be taken home and threatened to get out and walk. Rahmeier then took him home, he said, and no further touching occurred.

The boy also alleged that his Discord conversations with Rahmeier included Rahmeier talking to him about masturbation and telling him he loved him. The older man also purchased video game currency for the boy and allegedly requested that the boy send him “shower” photos, which the boy said he declined to do.

The boy identified Rahmeier’s Discord account as “bubbacaleb.” Police reviewed messages belonging to that account, but what they found is entirely redacted in the affidavit, which is solid blocks of black ink for more than two pages, at the request of the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office. The affidavit does note, though, that police found no requests by Rahmeier on Discord for nude images of the boy.

After Rahmeier was placed on administrative leave, he agreed to talk to police and waived his Miranda rights. Rahmeier reportedly admitted to having messaged with the boy on Discord and to having purchased game currency for him, but he said the boy always paid him back. When asked about his alleged declaration of love for the boy, Rahmeier said he meant it platonically. When the subject of the late-night rides came up, Rahmeier stopped the interview and requested an attorney, the affidavit said.

Rahmeier reportedly consented to a search of his residence, and police said that the residence matched a description of how the boy said it had looked.

The boy told police that he accepted around two dozen late-night rides from Rahmeier between May 2023 and May 2024, some of them after the alleged touching incident had occurred. He had apparently not told police about the later rides because, he said, he feared getting into additional trouble by his parents for continuing to sneak out after he had been grounded for doing so in October of 2023.

Rahmeier is out of custody on a $40,000 bond and is next scheduled to appear in court for a status conference on Jan. 28.