A campus supervisor at an Encinitas middle school was arrested this week on suspicion of molesting a 12-year-old child, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
Diegueño Middle School campus supervisor Omar Hernandez Galeana was arrested Sunday on suspicion of child molestation and providing marijuana to a minor, sheriff’s Lt. Lon Nguyen said.
Galeana, 21, remained jailed Tuesday in lieu of $1 million bail. He is expected to be arraigned Wednesday in Vista Superior Court.
The alleged incident happened Friday outside of school hours, Nguyen said. He did not provide further information about what happened.
He said deputies from the North Coast Station and Child Abuse Unit immediately began investigating when the report was forwarded to law enforcement. He did not say when the report was made.
The day of Galeana’s arrest, sheriff’s officers notified the San Dieguito Unified School District, of which the middle school is a part. On Monday, Superintendent Anne Staffieri informed the families of the arrest, saying she had “deeply disturbing news to share.”
In a letter, Staffieri said Galeana was arrested “on allegations of inappropriate off-campus behavior involving minors under the age of 14.”
Citing the ongoing investigation, she said the district is “extremely limited in terms of the information we can share about the former employee and the allegations.”
Galeana had been working at the Olivenhain Community College campus in Encinitas for three months. “As of today, he is no longer an employee of the District,” the superintendent wrote.
Staffieri said people should not discuss the “terribly unfortunate situation” on social media “as it will not assist law enforcement in their investigation and only serves to compromise the privacy of those involved “.
This is the third arrest in a week of a school staff member accused of sex crimes involving minors.
Last Thursday, two San Diego area educators were arrested in unrelated cases: a Mt. Carmel High School drama teacher accused of sexually abusing a student and a Hoover High School vice principal accused of soliciting child sexual abuse material from a minor.
The drama teacher has pleaded not guilty. The deputy director is expected to be arraigned later this week.
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