Published: January 12, 2008 12:33 am         

Man hosting foreign-exchange students is accused of sex crimes

A 59-year-old Enid man has been charged with three felony sex offenses he allegedly committed against three foreign-exchange students he hosted in 2006.

Stewart Lee To-bias was charged with one count of lewd molestation and two counts of sexual battery. Ac-cording to charges, the lewd molestation allegedly occurred in August 2006 and in-volved a 15-year-old boy. One count of sexual battery allegedly occurred in Au-gust 2006 and involved a 16-year-old boy. The second sexual battery count alleges an instance involving a 17-year-old boy in October 2006.

According to an affidavit, a report was made to Enid police Oct. 26, 2006, of possible abuse toward four boys living in Enid as participants of a student foreign exchange program.

An Enid High School counselor was approached by one of the boys wanting to know the process for changing his host parents. The boy, 16, told the counselor his host parent, Tobias, had been touching him, according to the affidavit.

Police learned four boys were staying with Tobias through the exchange program and spoke to each at the school. Each of the boys said Tobias would touch them, sleep in the same bed with them and tell them he loved them, the affidavit states.

One boy told police Tobias once exposed himself and had touched him on more than one occasion, according to the affidavit.

The 15-year-old boy told police Tobias touched him on more than one occasion and had slept in the same bed as him. The boy told police he “thought it was the custom to sleep with your pants off,” the affidavit states.

When police spoke with Tobias, he denied touching any of the boys in an inappropriate manner, according to the affidavit, but said the boys would give each other back rubs. Tobias told police he got into bed with two of the four boys on separate occasions.

Tobias faces three to 20 years in prison for the molestation charge and up to 10 years for each count of sexual battery. Tobias’ bond was set at $100,000, and he was ordered to return to court Jan. 28 for a bond appearance.

Foreign exchange students typically are placed in school by outside agencies, said Bill Word, Enid High School assistant principal.

“They call us and ask if we’ll take a certain number of students,” Word said.

Accredited organizations are governed by Council on Standards for International Educational Travel (CSIET), an oversight group. According to CSIET, all adult members of prospective host families are required to have a national criminal background check.

According to Word, the organization that placed the four exchange students at EHS was International Cultural Exchange Services (ICES).

Word said this was the first time EHS had worked with ICES, and school officials would “seriously question” whether they would work with ICES again.

ICES representatives declined to comment other than to say their screening processes are confidential. Currently, ICES does not have a satellite office in Oklahoma, according to its Web site.

This year, there are six to eight exchange students at EHS, Word said.

EHS follows Enid Public Schools’ policy concerning sexual abuse incidents, Principal Jim Beierschmitt said.

That protocol requires a teacher or staff member who has reason to suspect a student is endangered to report the information to the school principal, according to Ruth Ann Erdner, assistant superintendent. The principal informs the school nurse, who automatically contacts Department of Human Services. Enid Police Department also is informed of the situation.