East Islip coach quits amid sex allegations

A longtime East Islip High School coach and teacher has resigned, just days after he surrendered his teaching certificate to the state Department of Education and permanently waived his right to ever apply for any new state teaching or administrative certificates.

Matt Johnstone, 34, offered his resignation effective Oct. 8 and surrendered his teaching certificate on Oct. 4. Johnstone had been the high school's assistant varsity football coach, varsity girls basketball coach and physical education teacher.

He had been working for the district since 1999 but in October 2008 was reassigned to administrative duties that did not involve "working with or having contact with any student in the district," said district Superintendent Wendell Chu. The move, Chu said, was pending the outcome of an investigation by the state Department of Education.

Tom Dunn, a spokesman for the department, said a hearing on the case had been scheduled, but Johnstone waived his right to a hearing and surrendered his teaching certificate. There was no admission of wrongdoing, the state Education Department said.

While neither school district officials nor the state would comment on the nature of the investigation, Johnstone and East Islip are being sued by one of his former players who alleges he engaged in a sexual relationship with her while she was a student at the high school. In October 2008, Paula Primm, 49, of Islip Terrace, said she told school officials for the second time that Johnstone had engaged in a sexual relationship with her daughter, Rachel Primm, now 21. Paula Primm said she first notified the school in February 2008. The district declined to comment on that. Rachel graduated in 2007.

Paula Primm said her daughter had been scheduled to testify at the state Department of Education hearing on Oct. 12-13.

Last March, Rachel Primm filed the lawsuit, which stated that Johnstone "repeatedly made improper contact, sexual and inappropriate advances, engaged in inappropriate, offensive touching . . . and/or committed an act of child abuse" against her. The lawsuit also claims that Johnstone "had previous sexual relationships with and/or engaged in criminal and/or improper sexual conduct . . . with East Islip high school female students."

Johnstone did not return calls seeking comment. His attorney, Richard Hamburger of Melville, declined to comment. The school district also declined to comment.

In an interview, Rachel Primm said she first met Johnstone while playing basketball in the sixth grade and that in 10th grade, he became her coach on the varsity team, where she was a point guard. The pair began texting each other after games, she said. In her junior year, in 2006, Rachel said she began spending time in his office and soon the two began touching each other sexually. Rachel was 17 at the time, the age of consent in the state.

"I was very young; I didn't think much of it," Rachel said. "I just thought, 'Oh, he likes me, he appreciates me,' and he would always listen to me."

During her senior year after turning 18, Rachel said she and Johnstone became sexually intimate. The relationship continued after she graduated, she said, until her parents found out and forced her to end it.

The lawsuit, which seeks $40 million, states that Rachel Primm was "coerced by the defendant, Matt Johnstone, and as a result of such coercion, was physically and mentally unable to decline such improper and inappropriate sexual advances . . ." and that she sustained "severe and serious mental anguish, embarrassment, public scorn and ridicule, emotional distress, anxiety, nervousness, pain and was compelled to seek treatment."