Jan 18, 2007 - Collins Onunwah Jr., 53, a special education teacher at Lincoln Elementary School, was arrested for allegedly committing a lewd act with one of his developmentally disabled students.
Police were alerted when a faculty member at at the school witnessed a male teacher touching a 13-year-old female student in an inappropriate manner. Onunwah is being charged with committing a lewd or lascivious act with a child under 14 years old.
Based on the investigation, detectives said there may be more victims.
Update Feb 17 - Students in Onunwah's class were categorized as nonspeaking or less verbal, which makes it even harder to distinguish what they are feeling. It will make counseling difficult.
Update Mar 8 - No charges have been filed. The district attorney's office are still reviewing the case. His bail was returned Feb 28.
"His bail was exonerated and the case was taken off the calendar," said San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Jason Anderson.Apr 7 - A second girl, age 12, has come forward with accusing a special-education teacher of sexual misconduct via a claim filed against the Ontario-Montclair and Los Angeles Unified school districts, as well as against the teacher.
"If we decide to file charges, we could issue a new arrest warrant and (Onunwah) could be re-arrested. Or we will just notify him that charges have been filed," and that he is to appear in court.
However, the Onunwah's bail was exonerated and the case was taken off the calendar. NO charges have been filed against him. The newspaper reports that it wasn't clear at press time whether Ontario police were investigating the second accuser's allegations.
LAWSUIT Jan 15, 2008 - Lawyers for two of the students are trying to locate Onunwah so they can serve formally papers in a lawsuit against the teacher by two families of special-education students
