Here's a question for teachers and school administrators at El Modena High School in Orange: How do you lose track of a special ed student long enough to not notice that the school janitor is regularly luring her into his office and sexually assaulting her?
Those questions may come up when prosecutors begin their case against 49-year-old Luis Antonio Mejia, a longtime janitor at the high school who is accused of abusing a special ed student there for almost five months. Mejia allegedly showered the student with gifts, money, love notes, candy and exchanged more than 100 text messages with her for a month, beginning in December 2008. He's accused of sexually assaulting her over the next four months in his office, where he allegedly told another janitor to cover the surveillance camera with tape while he was alone with her.
The alleged sexual abuse went on through the end of April, apparently without any school official or special ed teacher noticing. A friend of the victim's eventually told the school principal who then contacted the police, according to the DA's office. If convicted of the six felony counts and one misdemeanor count against him, Mejia faces a
maximum of 12 years and eight months in state prison. He will be arraigned tomorrow.
