Teacher fired from Christian school after reporting shocking rape of her daughter

A former teacher at a private Christian Science high school in St. Louis claims she was fired from her job as part of a cover-up after reporting to police that her underage daughter had been sexually assaulted multiple times by a school employee.

Zachary Retzlaff, the director of telecommunications at Principia School, was indicted on charges of statutory rape after allegedly assaulting the 16-year-old daughter of teacher Phoebe McVey last year, reports the Riverfront Times.

According to McVey, she became aware that Retzlaff had been preying on her daughter after chaperoning a class trip to New Hampshire in 2015. After reporting him to police when she returned to St. Louis, the 31-year-old man was taken into custody and officially charged two months later.

Two days after Retzlaff's indictment, McVey says she called in and was told that she would not be retained after teaching at the school since 2007 and despite having a contract to teach the next year.

According to an earlier lawsuit filed against the school for covering up the attacks -- later withdrawn in such a way that it could be refiled again -- McVey alleged that her daughter had been raped by Retzlaff more than 40 times and that he had choked her during BDSM play. The suit also accuses the staffer, who is the nephew-in-law of the school's Dean of Admissions, of holding group sex parties for students.

In an official statement, Principia called the initial lawsuit baseless, saying Retzlaff had no interactions with the students at the school.