Another Redlands Unified teacher arrested for sexually abusing students – Orange County Register

Years after the last of the Redlands Unified School District teachers were indicted for lewdness with their students, a middle school teacher was arrested Friday on suspicion of one-on-one sexual abuse. former students for a period of six years.

San Bernardino County sheriff investigators arrested 53-year-old Joseph Michael Nardella at his Highland home a day after receiving a complaint from a Clement High School alumnus, now 18, who alleges he was sexually abused by Nardella from when he was 12 years old until he was 17.

Nardella was booked into the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino on suspicion of repeatedly sexually abusing minors under the age of 14 and is on $350,000 bail, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Detectives from the sheriff’s Crime Details Against Children said they believe there may be other victims of Nardella.

Nardella’s arrest is the latest development in a sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Redlands Unified School District over the past decade, prompting the district to paid over $41 million since 2016 to settle lawsuits by former students alleging they were preyed on and sexually abused by teachers.

However, no such allegations have emerged since the district through a series of reforms 2018 is designed to educate administrators, teachers, and staff about their responsibility for reporting such abuse.

School district spokeswoman Christine Stephens did not immediately respond to questions Friday seeking feedback about Nardella’s arrest and his working history with the district.

District teacher since 1997

But by school district website, Nardella has been a seventh-grade world history teacher and eighth-grade American history teacher at Clement Middle School since the school opened in 1997.

On his opinion webpage, Nardella said he has been the chair of Clement’s sociology department for the past 15 years and runs the school’s lunchtime intramural sports program.

Nardella is not the first teacher Clement to be arrested for allegedly sexually abusing students. Clement’s former English teacher Sean Ramiro Lopez was arrested in February 2002 on suspicion of sexually abusing three students, all 18-year-old boys and teenagers, between late 1999 and 2001. .

Lopez waives his right to a jury trial, and a judge sentenced him in 2006 to 60 counts, including lewd and lewd acts with a minor under the age of 14. sentenced to 74 years in prison and is serving a sentence at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione.

Plan to sue

Attorney Morgan Stewart, whose law firm Irvine Manly, Stewart & Finaldi specializes in child sex abuse cases, has represented some of Lopez’s victims in civil lawsuits filed by the school district. settlement in September 2021 for $11 million.

Stewart also represents Nardella’s alleged victim, and said Friday that he plans to file a lawsuit next week against the school district and Nardella.

“This arrest is not surprising given the atmosphere of cover-up that exists at Clement Middle School,” Stewart said in an email on Friday.

In the Lopez case, Stewart presented evidence that Marilyn Kemple, who served as principal at Clement when Lopez taught there from September 1999 until his arrest in 2002, was cautioned as early as 1999 about Lopez’s inappropriate behavior by students and parents, but was unsuccessful. Call the police and take appropriate action.

Kemple, according to Stewart, called at least one student a liar and threatened to expel her for reporting Lopez.

“We are proud of this young man coming forward and reporting this abuse,” Stewart said Friday of Nardella’s alleged victim. He said some of the alleged sexual abuse occurred in Clement, but most occurred at Nardella’s home.

Nardella has been placed on administrative leave by the school district, according to the sheriff’s press release.

Past scandals

ONE the year-long investigation of Southern California News Group revealed that, for nearly two decades, the district covered up sexual abuse allegations involving students and ordered teachers and other staff not to cooperate with police in criminal investigation process.

In most cases, school district administrators were aware of what was going on and failed as trustees to take appropriate action. Authorized reporters are professionals who regularly deal with children and are required by law to report suspected sexual abuse to the police or a child services agency.

Along with Lopez, among the most serious charges against the teacher are those against the former Citrus Valley football coach and English teacher. Laura Whitehurst, who was pregnant with the daughter of one of her students, and a former Redlands High School golf coach and math teacher Kevin Patrick Kirkland, who has for years hunted and cared for vulnerable adolescent girls for sex.

Staff Screenwriter Scott Schwebke contributed to this report