A first-year Gilroy High School math teacher who some students
praised for his willingness to lend extra help and others derided
for paying too much attention to female students was arrested for
having sex with a 14-year-old girl, San Jose police said.
A first-year Gilroy High School math teacher who some students praised for his willingness to lend extra help and others derided for paying too much attention to female students was arrested for having sex with a 14-year-old girl, San Jose police said.
Morgan Hill resident Alberto Gomez Vicuna Jr., 32, was arrested Feb. 25 for various sex offenses with a minor, San Jose police said, and will be arraigned 2 p.m. today in the South County Courthouse in San Martin. The victim did not attend GHS but met Vicuna through an Internet social networking site, Tagged.com. Police would not say whether the sex, which took place in San Jose, was consensual.
Police first learned of Vicuna at 1:47 p.m. Thursday, when the girl’s parents informed them that Vicuna was having sex with a minor, police said.
Vicuna taught Algebra I in room P-5 at GHS, according to the high school Web site, which did not have his picture posted as of Wednesday afternoon. Vicuna also tutored students on and off the GHS campus, police said. This is his first year teaching at GHS, students and staff said.
The Gilroy Unified School District placed Vicuna on indefinite administrative leave, said Enrique Palacios, deputy superintendent. District staff would not discuss details of the leave or the case because they were confidential personnel matters, he said.
However, the district will cooperate with the police, Palacios said.
“We’ll … do whatever the police department asks of us,” he said.
The police are conducting the investigation and any students that may come forward with complaints will be forwarded to police, said GHS Assistant Principal Stefani Garino.
“This investigation is not over,” said officer Jermaine Thomas of the San Jose Police Department. “At this point, we’re looking to see if there are more victims out there.”
Vicuna had a large presence at Tagged.com, claiming more than 100 female friends between the ages of 13 and 17 years old on his profile, police said. However, by Wednesday afternoon, Vicuna only had 10 friends, all of whom were older than 18 years old. Comments on his photos were in a mix of both English and Spanish and ranged from simple emoticons to flirtatious requests for photos. As of Thursday morning, the account had been taken down and the profile deleted.
Vicuna also used another profile, under the name “Juan G,” posing as a 15-year-old boy, police said. However, no profile matched search results for these criteria Wednesday afternoon.
The district office conducts preliminary screening for prospective employees but Principal James Maxwell makes the final calls to references for most new hires, Garino said. Teachers are not allowed to be in the classroom without first being fingerprinted, she said. Vicuna was not listed on either state or national sex offender Web sites.
Though it is not common to check a future employee’s status on social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, she acknowledged that doing so might be necessary in the future. Maxwell referred all comments to district staff.
“It’s tragic that something like this might occur,” said Trustee Fred Tovar, who found out Wednesday morning. “If he is guilty, let’s take the action we need to take, but if he’s not, I would hate to jeopardize his future and career.”
“He was nice,” said Desiree Rivera, a GHS sophomore. “He would mess around with us but not in a sexual way. I never felt uncomfortable.”
But Rivera said Vicuna would often pay more attention to his female students, a habit that caused Jeannie White, the mother of a 14-year-old boy in Vicuna’s class, to demand an answer.
“Every time the guys ask for an explanation in class, (Vicuna) focuses on the girls,” White said.
She butted heads with Vicuna earlier in the year when her son wasn’t getting the attention he needed, she said.
“If they have a pedophile on school grounds, I want to know if they’re not doing a good enough background check,” she said.
Other students said he was a good teacher who took extra time to explain the lesson in Spanish to students who did not speak English.
“A lot of teenagers don’t look their age,” said Barbara Rodriguez, a GHS junior. “Maybe the girl lied to him about her age. He’s a good person.”
If you have additional information on this case, you can call Detective Kendra Nunes or Detective Sgt. Randy Schriefer of the San Jose Police Dept’s Child Exploitation Detail at 277-4102. Persons wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 947-STOP.
