Police said Friday that a 69-year-old man who worked as a substitute teacher in Santa Ana, California was arrested earlier this month for allegedly sexually molesting four girls in the classroom.
Santa Ana police said in a statement that Peter Morales allegedly molested the female students at Adams Elementary School individually. The alleged incidents happened at different times during the day. The victims are aged between 8 and 9. Police said that they told school officials that Morales had “touched them inappropriately.”
Before becoming a substitute, Morales worked as a teacher for the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) for 18 years, reported KTLA. The teacher was arrested on suspicion of child molestation and eventually posted the $100,000 bail.
An email was sent to parents Friday. The School District said in the email that Morales was removed from the school and the district’s substitute list. The step was taken as soon as they were made aware of the allegations. Police indicated they are responding to the situation “with the utmost concern” and are cooperating with the probe. The email read that SAUSD will continue to do everything they can to provide a "safe learning environment for all students and we appreciate the quick response by law enforcement in this matter."
In a similar but separate incident, John Mordecai Scott, a former Orange County piano teacher who was convicted of sexually assaulting and molesting child students over nearly two decades was sentenced earlier this month to 100 years to life in jail, reported Los Angeles Times.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said that the trauma the "young girls were forced to endure by someone they should have been able to trust is unforgivable."
The piano teacher was arrested nearly a decade ago. He was suspected of molesting students at his home in Lake Forest and at Coast Band Music in Mission Viejo starting in 1996.
Attorney Genie Harrison, who represented one of the victims, said that the teacher was alone with his students while at Coast Band with little to no supervision. Parents were not allowed to stay during lessons because Scott told them their presence would be “disruptive." He had a photography room in his house where he took seminude photos of his victims. He also showed them pornography, according to prosecutors.
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