East Helena board to weigh teacher, student fallout after assault

The East Helena School Board voted 7-0 to expel Colton Galliher for 13 months after he allegedly punched teacher Erik Pritchard multiple times in a classroom at East Helena High School, and board members were also set to weigh a separation agreement with Pritchard as the district tried to settle a two-month fallout that has reached from the hallway to the boardroom.

Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said the student was cited for misdemeanor assault and, because he is a minor, the case will be handled in juvenile court. East Helena Public Schools Superintendent Dan Rispens said Pritchard was evaluated by medical staff and treated for minor injuries, and the student was suspended after the March 13 assault. The student’s family identified him as junior Colton Galliher.

Greg Martin, Galliher’s grandfather, said Colton punched Pritchard after hearing an allegation involving Pritchard and Galliher’s sister. The district’s own investigation did not support that allegation, and a Title IX investigation found no finding supporting the claim that helped spark the assault.

Rispens said administrators handled the discipline under the student handbook, board policy and state and federal law. He said the board usually gets involved only when a case violates both school rules and board policy as well as state or federal law, and he said that kind of board-level discipline is rare. In five years as superintendent, he said this was the third student matter to reach the board. In 25 years as an administrator, he estimated fewer than six or seven such cases.

The dispute has also shaken confidence inside the high school. Students walked out in protest of Pritchard’s continued employment, and an online petition calling for his firing gathered more than 560 verified signatures. Rispens said he was working with the board and the teachers’ union to find a path forward, a signal that the district was trying to manage both personnel questions and the broader climate on campus.

Pritchard said comments from former students were “highly defamatory” and not properly fact-checked. The case is further complicated by a separate Title IX investigation in March 2024 that found Pritchard violated sexual harassment as defined by Title IX, a finding that is not the same as a criminal conviction. Between the expulsion, the pending personnel action and the earlier findings, East Helena Public Schools is now confronting a harder question than one student’s punishment: whether its discipline system, transparency and support for staff are strong enough to keep another classroom conflict from turning into a districtwide crisis.