Teacher arrested in student sex case
Police: Relationship lasted four years
CHULA VISTA — The teacher made such an impression on the family that they asked her to be their son's godmother.
Yesterday, police accused Carmina Erica Lopez, 32, of using that trust to hide a four-year sexual relationship with the boy, which allegedly began when he was an 11-year-old sixth-grader.
Lopez, a resident of Mission Hills in San Diego, was arrested Wednesday night. She is being held without bail at Las Colinas Detention Facility on 83 counts, including continuous sexual abuse of a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child and sexual intercourse with a minor
.
Investigators believe Lopez began having sex with the boy, who is now 15, when she was his teacher in 2004 at Nestor Elementary School in South County, said Chula Vista Police Chief Rick Emerson.
Lopez, currently a fifth-grade teacher at Sunnyslope Elementary School, has been teaching at that Palm City school since 2005.
The boy is seeing a counselor because of psychological problems, and information about the relationship emerged during a session, police said. The boy told the county's Child Welfare Services that Lopez had forced him to have sex with her, authorities said.
The relationship ended in June 2008, police said. They do not know why.
Chula Vista police are handling the case because Lopez lived in that city when many of the alleged offenses occurred. Police said the abuses occurred at Lopez's home, in a car and in school.
Lopez was placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
“The South Bay Union School District is fully cooperating with the police in their efforts,” Superintendent Carol A. Parish wrote in a letter sent home to parents yesterday.
Lopez, who is single, has a 4-year-old son, police said. She began teaching in the district in 2004 at Oneonta Elementary School, transferred to Nestor in the fall of 2004 and to Sunnyslope the following year.
Parents picking up their children at Sunnyslope yesterday were disappointed in the development.
“You hear about it in the news, but you never think it's going to happen at your school. It happened,” said Jose Chavez as he waited for his daughters.
On Manning Way, where Lopez once lived just around the corner from Sunnyslope Elementary, neighbors reacted to the arrest with skepticism.
“Carmina? I don't think so,” said Carmen de Guzman, a longtime next-door neighbor of Lopez. “She loved kids, but not like that. I don't believe it.”
De Guzman recalled that Lopez stayed in the south San Diego neighborhood after her mother died while she was still in high school and that her father died while she was a San Diego State University student. De Guzman said Lopez has a boyfriend.
Across the street, Marta de Jesus was just as dubious of the allegations.
“She's my daughter's teacher at Sunnyslope,” de Jesus said. “My daughter has known her since kindergarten. She loves (Lopez), just loves her. Every kid in her class, they love her.”
If true, the abuse would not be without precedent. In 1993, Kathi R. Woolsey, 36, a fourth-grade teacher at Casita Elementary School in Vista, was sentenced to six months in jail for sexually molesting a baby sitter. The boy was 10 when the misconduct began.
A year later, Chula Vista substitute teacher Cindy Dahlene, 26, was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting two 11-year-old students.
A little-known clause in the federal No Child Left Behind Act calls for a study on the prevalence of sexual abuse in schools, but such a study has never been funded.
Charol Shakeshaft, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, was commissioned to examine existing studies. A report she wrote cites an American Association of University Women study in estimating that 6.7 percent of students are victims of sexual misconduct by educators.
“Anecdotally, it certainly seems like there are a lot of cases,” said David Hendren, chief of the district attorney's sex crimes and stalking unit.
Warning signs of possible misconduct include teachers buying students lavish gifts such as iPods, seeing students outside school or giving them rides, said Robert Shoop, director of the Cargill Center for Ethical Leadership at Kansas State University.
“These are not people in trench coats on playgrounds who drag kids into the woods,” Shoop said.
Shakeshaft said elementary school offenders are what she calls “fixated abusers” and what are more commonly known as pedophiles.
“The elementary cases tend to be people who are psychologically stimulated only by children or certain-age children,” Shakeshaft said. Offenders who work in middle and high schools exploit whomever they find vulnerable, she said.
“The damage to the kid is the same,” Shakeshaft said
Sunnyslope Elementary School school teacher Carmina Lopez as seen in a South Bay Union School District December online newsletter. -
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Police: Relationship lasted four years
CHULA VISTA — The teacher made such an impression on the family that they asked her to be their son's godmother.
Yesterday, police accused Carmina Erica Lopez, 32, of using that trust to hide a four-year sexual relationship with the boy, which allegedly began when he was an 11-year-old sixth-grader.
Lopez, a resident of Mission Hills in San Diego, was arrested Wednesday night. She is being held without bail at Las Colinas Detention Facility on 83 counts, including continuous sexual abuse of a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child and sexual intercourse with a minor
.
Investigators believe Lopez began having sex with the boy, who is now 15, when she was his teacher in 2004 at Nestor Elementary School in South County, said Chula Vista Police Chief Rick Emerson.
Lopez, currently a fifth-grade teacher at Sunnyslope Elementary School, has been teaching at that Palm City school since 2005.
The boy is seeing a counselor because of psychological problems, and information about the relationship emerged during a session, police said. The boy told the county's Child Welfare Services that Lopez had forced him to have sex with her, authorities said.
The relationship ended in June 2008, police said. They do not know why.
Chula Vista police are handling the case because Lopez lived in that city when many of the alleged offenses occurred. Police said the abuses occurred at Lopez's home, in a car and in school.
Lopez was placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
“The South Bay Union School District is fully cooperating with the police in their efforts,” Superintendent Carol A. Parish wrote in a letter sent home to parents yesterday.
Lopez, who is single, has a 4-year-old son, police said. She began teaching in the district in 2004 at Oneonta Elementary School, transferred to Nestor in the fall of 2004 and to Sunnyslope the following year.
Parents picking up their children at Sunnyslope yesterday were disappointed in the development.
“You hear about it in the news, but you never think it's going to happen at your school. It happened,” said Jose Chavez as he waited for his daughters.
On Manning Way, where Lopez once lived just around the corner from Sunnyslope Elementary, neighbors reacted to the arrest with skepticism.
“Carmina? I don't think so,” said Carmen de Guzman, a longtime next-door neighbor of Lopez. “She loved kids, but not like that. I don't believe it.”
De Guzman recalled that Lopez stayed in the south San Diego neighborhood after her mother died while she was still in high school and that her father died while she was a San Diego State University student. De Guzman said Lopez has a boyfriend.
Across the street, Marta de Jesus was just as dubious of the allegations.
“She's my daughter's teacher at Sunnyslope,” de Jesus said. “My daughter has known her since kindergarten. She loves (Lopez), just loves her. Every kid in her class, they love her.”
If true, the abuse would not be without precedent. In 1993, Kathi R. Woolsey, 36, a fourth-grade teacher at Casita Elementary School in Vista, was sentenced to six months in jail for sexually molesting a baby sitter. The boy was 10 when the misconduct began.
A year later, Chula Vista substitute teacher Cindy Dahlene, 26, was sentenced to eight years in prison for molesting two 11-year-old students.
A little-known clause in the federal No Child Left Behind Act calls for a study on the prevalence of sexual abuse in schools, but such a study has never been funded.
Charol Shakeshaft, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, was commissioned to examine existing studies. A report she wrote cites an American Association of University Women study in estimating that 6.7 percent of students are victims of sexual misconduct by educators.
“Anecdotally, it certainly seems like there are a lot of cases,” said David Hendren, chief of the district attorney's sex crimes and stalking unit.
Warning signs of possible misconduct include teachers buying students lavish gifts such as iPods, seeing students outside school or giving them rides, said Robert Shoop, director of the Cargill Center for Ethical Leadership at Kansas State University.
“These are not people in trench coats on playgrounds who drag kids into the woods,” Shoop said.
Shakeshaft said elementary school offenders are what she calls “fixated abusers” and what are more commonly known as pedophiles.
“The elementary cases tend to be people who are psychologically stimulated only by children or certain-age children,” Shakeshaft said. Offenders who work in middle and high schools exploit whomever they find vulnerable, she said.
“The damage to the kid is the same,” Shakeshaft said
Sunnyslope Elementary School school teacher Carmina Lopez as seen in a South Bay Union School District December online newsletter. -
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