California Teacher Faces Child Porn Charges

Police outside a closed school near downtown Los Angeles on Dec. 15, 2015. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

A teacher from Rio Vista High School, California, has been arrested and charged with possessing child pornography, according to the Rio Vista Police Department (RVPD).

“On November 23rd, RVPD officers, with assistance from Solano County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Bureau, served a warrant at the home of 33-year-old Drake Sherman,” said a Nov. 24 Facebook post from the department.

“Investigators found child sexual assault material (CSAM) and evidence that Sherman had recently downloaded CSAM. Sherman was arrested and booked into the Solano County Jail on 14 counts of possession of child pornography.”

Sherman was also an athletic director and baseball coach at the school. The bureau urged anyone with additional information on the matter or on potential victims to contact them at 707-784-7050.

The River Delta Unified School District said in a Facebook post that they were already looking into Sherman after the district was notified about “inappropriate and unprofessional conduct” between him and some students at Rio Vista.

The district immediately placed the teacher on administrative leave and started an investigation into the matter, it said, adding they have yet to make a “law-abiding decision” regarding Sherman’s employment status.

River Delta asked parents and students with any information relevant to the case to come forward and “not remain silent.” They can contact the district’s Director of Personnel, Laura Zimmerman, at 707-374-1700.

The Epoch Times reached out to Rio Vista Principal Noelle Nelson and the school district’s personnel office for comment.

Earlier this month, officials arrested Sacramento school teacher Mark Sirard for allegedly possessing such material.

He was employed at the Leonardo Da Vinci K-8 School in the Sacramento City Unified School District, instructing children about English Language Arts in seventh and eighth grade. Sirard used to take students on field trips to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, which lasted several days.

The school district called the arrest “deeply disturbing.” Sirard was put on administrative leave.

In July last year, an elementary teacher from Texas was taken into custody after authorities alleged the person was involved in promoting child porn. The individual served as a dyslexia interventionist for kindergarteners through third grade.

Sexual Abuse by Educators

In 2022, a bipartisan group of lawmakers questioned the U.S. Education Department about what they said was its failure to institute policies to protect children from sexually predator educators.

“When parents send their children to school, they expect them to be safe. However, this is not always the case,” said U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in a release.

In a letter to the department, they wrote: “A study published by the Department estimated around 10 percent of students experience sexual misconduct by a school employee. Even more concerning are the attempts by school administrators to cover the abuse up.”

Various government reports over the years have detailed the educator sexual abuse problem in the United States.

A 2010 analysis from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) detailed cases about teachers at both private and public schools.

“At least 11 of these 15 cases involve offenders who previously targeted children. Even more disturbing, in at least six cases, offenders used their new positions as school employees or volunteers to abuse more children,” the report said.

The GAO found that schools allowed teachers engaging in sexual misconduct to resign from their posts rather than subject them to disciplinary actions. Some schools even provided positive references for some of them.

According to a 2004 report by the U.S. Department of Education, “more than 4.5 million students are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade.”

Some state lawmakers are taking measures to address the problem. In Massachusetts, a bill is under consideration that requires strict screening of school employees before they are hired.

Schools would be required to provide a written statement as to whether an applicant was the subject of any abuse or sexual misconduct investigation.