See the update at the end of this post where a school official confirms Aaron Widera taught in Anaheim, where a community meeting is scheduled Thursday Friday.
ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 28, 8 A.M.: A 38-year-old math teacher who works in Orange County and resides in Long Beach pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday to posting dozens of child pornography images on his Tumblr page and possessing thousands more.
Aaron Paul Widera was being held on $1 million bail while facing two counts of possession of matter depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct and single counts of obscene matter depicting a person under 18 and sending or bringing obscene matter into the state for sale.
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Prosecutors in Long Beach say detectives found more than three dozen images of child pornography posted on Widera's Tumble account, which led to a search of his home that turned up thousands of more kiddie-porn images. He was arrested Friday.
Widera faces up to six years in prison if convicted.
The DA won't confirm where Widera worked because none of the students he taught are believed at this point to have been victims. But there are online records for a math teacher named Aaron Widera having worked at Long Beach high schools as recently as 2011 and at South Junior High School in the Anaheim Union High School District (AUHSD). We're awaiting word back from AUHSD on whether he's the man who was arrested.
The Orange County Register, citing Orange County Department of Education and AUHSD records, reports an Aaron P. Widera was a teacher at Anaheim High School at the end of the 2011-12 school year and previously worked as a substitute teacher in Orange County. The Weekly's check indicated someone by that name also subbed at Lakewood High School.
UPDATE, AUG. 28, 2:20 P.M.: After prosecutors in Long Beach indicated Aaron Paul Widera was a math teacher facing charges of allegedly possessing a massive amount of kiddie porn, the weekly contacted Patricia Karlak, an Anaheim Union High School District spokewoman, for confirmation that he was the same Aaron Widera who worked at South Junior High School.
Karlak never got back to this Orange County newspaper, but she reportedly emailed the Los Angeles Times to state Widera did teach at South but was placed on administrative leave pending the police investigation.
My follow-up question would be whether Anaheim parents were informed of the matter as I found nothing on the district or school websites to indicate they had been as of late Tuesday afternoon.
I would await my answer from the Times were it not for my colleague Gabriel San Roman, who covers Anaheim for the Weekly and informs an AUHSD tele-parent message sent out today alerts that a teacher “who previously” worked at South Jr. High was arrested for “misconduct.” The message was apparently only sent out in English despite many parents speaking Spanish as their first language.
A community forum is said to be scheduled Friday Thursday. The message follows on the next page …
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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