KMPH Fox 26 Central San Joaquin Valley News Source in Fresno, California Entertainment, News, Sports and Weather | Reedley Teachers Arrested for Child Pornography

Reedley Teachers Arrested for Child Pornography

By: Ashley Ritchie

At Grant Middle School in Reedley, "shock" seems to be the top lesson.

"It surprises me," Juanita Ortis said.

Ortis has a 7th grader at the school.

Tuesday morning Fresno County sheriff's deputies arrested 31-year-old Vincent Chavez, a 6th grade English teacher at Grant, and 31-year-old Samuel Garza, a substitute teacher, on charges of possessing child pornography.

"That's gonna be where our kids are all day, with those teachers?" Ortis asked.

"This is a very sad, shocking turn of events," John Campbell, assistant superintendent with the Kings Canyon Unified School District, said.

Campbell says the arrests caught everyone off-guard.

"Mr. Chavez was a well-respected teacher and member of the community, so it is shocking both for the faculty of the school as well as the students," he said.

Campbell says there were no red flags with either teacher that would've led the district to believe students were at risk.

"We go through a thorough background check which includes fingerprints, D.O.J clearance. He came to us from another school district with a good record. The other gentleman is just a sub. He works sporadically here and there. I don't know too much about him. But he went through the same background check," Campbell said.

School officials want to emphasize to parents that there were no arrests or any kind of action on the school's campus.

And as far as they know, there were no Kings Canyon students involved with the charges.

All they can do now is try to move on.

"Unfortunately with hundreds of teachers, these kinds of things do happen in all school districts and we just do our best to focus on the students and help the students through things like this," Campbell said.

"What am I gonna do? I can't send them to another school," Ortis said.

For parents like Juanita Ortis, the shock is far from wearing off.

And they can only hope teachers like Chavez and Garza have taught their last lesson.

Chavez and Garza both posted a $5,000 bail Wednesday night and were released from jail.

School officials say both teachers have been placed on paid administrative leave.

A phone message is going out to parents to notify them of the situation.

And crisis teams will be on hand at the school to work with students and faculty.

The Fresno County District Attorney's Office released a statement Wednesday saying an investigation is currently underway involving the adult child of one of their investigators, saying "The alleged crime is unacceptable and needs to be treated very seriously."