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Estey Bomberger reviews and monitors news stories and reports of crime and lawsuits involving public and private schools nationwide. The following reports are for schools located in San Bernardino County, CA. If your child has been sexually abused or negligently supervised and you would like more information about your options or rights in a civil suit, contact us for a free consultation.
- ARROWVIEW MIDDLE SCHOOL (SAN BERNARDINO)
2299 N G St, San Bernardino, CA 92405
Eugene Ballantyne, 30, of Running Springs, a social studies teacher at Arrowview Middle School, pleaded guilty in July 2012 to one count of attempting to entice a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity. Ballantyne met his victim, a 13-year-old girl in New Jersey, in an Internet chat room and asked her to send pornographic photos of herself to him. Multiple pornographic photos of Ballantyne’s victims, including one who was a former student, were found on his computer. He also posed as an 18-year-old in order to convince a 15-year-old victim to send him graphic images, and in one case, travelled to Blythe to engage in a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old victim. In February 2014, Ballantyne was sentenced to 10 years in prison in federal court. News Source: San Bernardino Sun
- BERLYN Elementary School (ONTARIO)
1320 N Berlyn Ave, Ontario, CA 91764
Eric Norman Olsen, a substitute teacher in more than a dozen Southern California school districts, including Berlyn Elementary School in Ontario, admitted to inappropriately touching six students under the age of 11 during school hours. He was sentenced to five years in prison by a San Bernardino Superior Court judge in July 2007. News Source: LA Times
- REDLANDS HIGH SCHOOL (REDLANDS)
840 East Citrus Avenue, Redlands, CA 92374
Laura Elizabeth Whitehurst, 28, a former teacher at Redlands High School, pleaded guilty in August 2013 to having sex with three of her students (all were under 18), including one who was the father of her baby. Whitehurst pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful sex with a minor and two counts of oral copulation with a minor. The remaining 35 charges were dismissed. She was sentenced to one year in county jail and five years probation, as well as registration as a sex offender and sex offender counseling. News Source: NBC Los Angeles
- YUCAIPA HIGH SCHOOL (YUCAIPA)
33000 Yucaipa Boulevard, Yucaipa, CA 92399
Sheila Heacock, 44, a Spanish teacher at Yucaipa High School, pleaded guilty in May 2015 to a single charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. She was charged with five other counts – three counts of oral copulation with a person under 18 years of age and two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor more than 3 years younger, penetration by a foreign object with a person under 18 and contacting a minor with intent to commit an offense. Sentencing was scheduled for July 1, 2015. News Source: ABC 7