Social media redeems itself in OC … twice

CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on April 30, 2013

A teacher at Anaheim’s Servite Catholic High School is accused of posing as a girl to get teenage boys to send lewd pictures of themselves. He was arrested in February and faces numerous charges.

In 2011, a teacher at JSerra High School in south Orange County was arrested on charges of lewd conduct with a 14-year-old girl. The mother found texts he has shared with her daughter and reported to police. According to the mother, she also tried to report to the school, but was rebuffed. An independent committee found that the teacher, Ricardo Aldana, had been suspended from another teaching position for inappropriate contact with students. Aldana is scheduled to go to trial this month.

What do these cases have in common? Because of the digital trail of social media, a cover-up was virtually impossible – even after JSerra students wore “Free Aldana” t-shirts, and Servite tried to dilute the news of the sexual abuse with the announcement of a new head football coach.

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