LAUSD assistant principal accused of sexually abusing student
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A former Los Angeles Unified School District assistant principal has been accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old student in Van Nuys in 2006.
William Webb will be arraigned later this week on several charges, including one felony count each of committing a lewd act on a child, oral copulation of a person under 18 and sodomy of a person under 18.
Investigators said the 51-year-old was assigned to Vista Middle School in Van Nuys when he allegedly abused a student.
Webb was assistant principal at Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts in downtown L.A. when the allegations first surfaced in 2014.
At that time, he was reassigned from the school to his home and the case was referred to the LAUSD's Student Safety Investigation Team, which cooperated with the LAPD investigation, according to the school district.
The suspect was arrested around 9:40 a.m. on Tuesday. He's being held in lieu of $120,000 bail.
A decade ago, Webb worked at Vista Middle School in Van Nuys. Former students said Webb was a nice person who was always there for students.
Other said he became a target for some parents who objected to the way he supported LGBT students.
"Some parents were a little concerned, especially in our community which is a little more conservative," Kathryn Garcia said.
One student named as John Doe filed a lawsuit against the LAUSD, claiming that Webb harassed, abused and molested him between 2004 and 2008 and that the district failed to supervise him.
Lawyers said their client, who is now 24 years old, had been suffering in silence. In 2012, when a slew of teachers were arrested for child molestation at local schools, an uncle persuaded the former student to call the LAPD and hire attorneys.
Doe's defense team said that reforms undertaken by the district still fall short of protecting the students.
Anyone with information regarding this incident was asked to contact the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit at (213) 486-0580.
