Parents in the Osborn School District were frustrated after school and district officials provided very little information about the arrest of a teacher accused of distributing child pornography.
Gabriel Lorenzo Chacon, a third-grade teacher at Encanto Elementary School, is accused of sending child pornography and child sexual abuse material to an Australian law enforcement officer using an online messaging platform.
Jayde Thomas, a parent whose daughter was in Chacon’s class, said the school and district have not provided answers to concerned parents. She attended a meeting hosted by the school for parents about the arrest but said very little information was provided.
Thomas said school administrators told parents that there was no evidence showing
any students were victims in the case, but Thomas said her daughter told her Chacon frequently took photos of students at school.
“We were never sent any of those photos, we don’t know what he did with those photos,” Thomas said.
Thomas said the school informed parents that Chacon had been placed on leave, but said she and other parents found out through news reports that the arrest had to do with child pornography.
In a letter from Osborn School District Superintendent Felipe Carranza, sent Oct. 15, Carranza told parents the district was informed by the FBI on Oct. 7 about the arrest, but said FBI agents told district leaders not to disclose the reason because it could compromise the integrity of the case.
“On Friday, October 9, we communicated directly with families in the affected classroom to inform them that the teacher would no longer be on campus,” Carranza wrote. “At that time, we were unable to share the circumstances surrounding his absence because of the guidance we had received from federal law enforcement.”
News reports of the arrest began Oct. 13, Carranza said, and then the district communicated with families about the arrest.
“I want to emphasize that our intention was never to hide information from our families or community,” Carranza wrote, going on to say he recognized the limited information was frustrating to families.
Thomas said she has not sent her daughter back to school since the arrest became public, because she does not feel she can trust them anymore. She and her family have been looking at changing schools.
“It really hurts me because it messes up her trust for teachers and she’s only in third grade,” Thomas said.
Chacon was arrested Oct. 7 after the FBI and The New South Wales Police Force in Australia used his online username to identify him, according to FBI documents.
In direct messages, Chacon told the undercover officer that he was a teacher, that he liked boys under the age of 10 and made comments about wishing he could perform sexual acts at work, according to documents. Chacon also sent photos of his genitals to the undercover officer.
The officer asked Chacon what types of videos he liked and asked him to send some of his favorites. Chacon then sent the officer multiple videos of prepubescent boys being sexually abused by adult men, documents said.
When contacted by police, Chacon told officers he knew the videos were of real children, not computer-generated images.
He told officers he had not been hands-on with any children, in his classroom or otherwise, and said he had never taken pictures or videos of minors, according to court documents.
Corina Vanek covers development for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at cvanek@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X @CorinaVanek.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Parents frustrated at district response to teacher arrest
