Oyster-Adam teacher arrested

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a mom of an Oyster student in the 2nd grade, so he hasn't had any interaction with this teacher. (For folks who don't know, the primary campus goes to third grade; the Adams campus, where Mr. Pena taught, has the fourth through eighth grades.) This weekend, Oyster had its big annual fundraiser -- the Fiesta. My kid is into baseball, so he spent a lot of time at the dunking booth, trying to dunk the Adams kids and the Oyster-Adams teachers who had volunteered to sit in the booth.

That's the first time I saw Mr. Pena, who volunteered to sit in the booth for a while. I took notice of him because he seemed so engaging -- handsome, always smiling, and the kids seemed to love him. I truly hope these allegations aren't true. If they are, I hope justice is done.

Emails I've seen going around from Adams parents suggest he was one of the best teachers at the school. Very sad if true. Very infuriating if not true. Either way, a rough day but all will be well. I like our new principal, she can handle this.

Yes, he also won The Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award in 2011 from the Washington Post. He sounds as if he was a very well respected teacher.

[Anonymous]

Is there information about the charges? One incident or more?
Seems like if there was reason/evidence for an arrest, good move to get him out if the classroom.

[Anonymous]

if what we know so far is accurate (parent allegation monday, arrest tuesday), the swiftness of the response would be surprising in the absence of very good evidence.

otherwise, it seems like the school could just put him on leave until the police and school investigated the veracity of the claim

so, the situation was either a) promptly handled in the best interests of everyone or b) handled very poorly with a rush to judgement (assuming no evidence other than parent allegation)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if what we know so far is accurate (parent allegation monday, arrest tuesday), the swiftness of the response would be surprising in the absence of very good evidence.

otherwise, it seems like the school could just put him on leave until the police and school investigated the veracity of the claim

so, the situation was either a) promptly handled in the best interests of everyone or b) handled very poorly with a rush to judgement (assuming no evidence other than parent allegation)[/quote

I don't know him that personally but professionally, but from what I do know this news is totally shocking. I truly hope that this is not true for the the sake of either of the two parties.

[Anonymous]

This has really shocked me to the core, according to this news site he confessed. I knew this man professionally through DCPS, and would never in a million years have said this could be true.

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/06/oyster-adams-bilingual-school-teacher-arrested-in-child-sex-abuse-case-114461.html

[Anonymous]

Oh, Oyster!

[Anonymous]

Heard on the news that Pena sent pictures of his naked private parts to the student. That's probably the solid evidence.

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/local/dc/2015/06/02/dc-bilingual-school-teacher-arrested-for-sex-abuse/28388297/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has really shocked me to the core, according to this news site he confessed. I knew this man professionally through DCPS, and would never in a million years have said this could be true.

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/06/oyster-adams-bilingual-school-teacher-arrested-in-child-sex-abuse-case-114461.html

Oh wow, he sure didn't put up a fight.

[Anonymous]

Holy cow, that article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy cow, that article.

Omg, I am in no way involved with OA or any affected parties but I am so saddened reading this article.

[Anonymous]

My heart goes out the OA community. What a terrible tragedy. I'm sorry for the child who was abused. This shouldn't be happening. I hope Mr. Pena's punishment is swift and severe.

[Anonymous]

Did they say his victims were boys?

[Anonymous]

Super sad for the entire school but especially for the child involved. You just never know.

[Anonymous]

If they have penises that = boys. Horrible!!! Unfortunately there are others, and this guy was in a cycle he couldn't turn off. I hope parents use the help line if they have the slightest doubt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Super sad for the entire school but especially for the child involved. You just never know.

I thought the same thing when a parent who was interviewed earlier said "I am 100% behind Mr. Pena", even against you best judgement, you just never know. This is just so very sad.