Westminster school admin pleads guilty to attempted child sex assault, abuse

An administrator at Westminster’s Mountain Range High School pleaded guilty to two felonies on Wednesday after police say he sent explicit photos of himself to an underage student over Snapchat.

Tate Drane, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury and one count of attempted sexual assault on a child, both felonies, according to court records.

Three felony charges of internet sexual exploitation of a child, child sexual assault by one in a position of trust and child sex assault will be dismissed by the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, according to the plea agreement filed Wednesday.

Drane was arrested by Westminster police in October after several people filed Safe2Tell reports that he sent “inappropriate photos to an underage student.”

Police found Drane had sent a girl 13 photos of his face, body and genitals with lewd captions and asked the girl to send back nude photos, according to an arrest affidavit. He had previously assaulted the girl when she was in middle school, but she did not report the assault.

Drane had worked in Adams 12 Five Star Schools since 2018, including as a gym teacher at Rocky Top Middle School. He started as dean of students at Mountain Range in August 2024 and was previously a football and girls basketball coach at Mountain Range and Thornton High School.

He was placed on administrative leave after his arrest, but school district officials could not be reached Friday afternoon to confirm if he was still an employee.

Drane is set to appear in court for a sentencing hearing on Sept. 24.

Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.

(Visited 2 times, 1 visits today)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *