A Gilroy High School math teacher was arrested on suspicion of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, San Jose police said.
Morgan Hill resident Alberto Gomez Vicuna Jr., 32, was arrested earlier today for various sex offenses with a minor, San Jose police said. The victim was a girl who did not attend Gilroy High School, but who met Vicuna through an Internet social networking site, Tagged.com. Police would not say whether the sex, which they allege 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, and then launched an investigation, police said.
Vicuna taught Algebra I at Gilroy High School and worked out of room P-5, 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 Gilroy High School campus, police said.
The Gilroy Unified School District placed Vicuna on indefinite administrative leave, said Enrique Palacios, deputy superintendent of business services. District staff could 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.
Vicuna had a large presence at Tagged.com, claiming more than 100 female friends, all 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,” and posed as a 15-year-old boy, police said. However, no profile matched search results for these criteria Wednesday afternoon.
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.
