Bail set for suspect in assaults
Also, in May, a former guard at Grandview High was arrested in a sexual assault.
In the past six months, two employees of the Cherry Creek School District have been accused of sexually assaulting students, but police and district officials handled public aspects of the cases differently.
On Tuesday, Aurora police Chief Nick Metz and Cherry Creek superintendent Harry Bull held a joint news conference to announce the arrest of Prairie Middle School teacher Brian Vasquez, who is accused of sexually assaulting five students.
However, neither agency told the public in May when Broderick Lundie, a former security guard at Grandview High School, was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a student.
Abbe Smith, a school district spokeswoman, said the district followed the police department’s lead in both cases. Lundie is believed to have one alleged victim, and Vasquez is accused of assaulting multiple students. Authorities suspect there may be additional victims.
“At Prairie Middle School, it is very clear there is potential for more victims,” Smith said. “We wanted to get the information out there as soon as we were able to get assistance to victims.”
Vasquez appeared in court Wednesday morning for an advisement on three counts of sex assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and five counts of sexual exploitation of a child, according to a news release from the 18th Judicial District attorney’s office.
In court, a prosecutor said five victims had been identified.
Vasquez’s bail was set at $200,000, and he remained in the Arapahoe County Detention Center on Wednesday night.
Vasquez, who lives in Aurora, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at the middle school, which has more than 1,760 students in grades six through eight. He teaches eighth-grade social studies and leads the Destination Imagination after-school program, in which students use arts, sciences and technology to solve problems and compete against other teams from across the state.
The Cherry Creek district placed Vasquez on administrative leave and issued notices to parents at Prairie Middle School and Overland High School, where
most former Prairie students attend ninth through 12th grades.
Officials released few details of the assaults that Vasquez is accused of committing, and his arrest affidavit was sealed by the courts.
Still, police released a timeline of Vasquez’s work history because they said there may be more victims.
Vasquez previously taught in the Widefield-3 and Harrison-2 school districts in El Paso County, and he worked at the San Luis Valley Youth Detention Center in Alamosa, police said.
At Widefield, Vasqez started in 2007 as a substitute teacher and was hired full time in October that year as a teacher at Mesa Ridge High School, said Samantha Briggs, the school district’s communications director. He left Widefield in 2009.
The school district did not have any complaints against Vasquez or employment issues during his tenure, Briggs said. The dis- trict has not heard from parents or former students since his arrest, nor has it been contacted by police.
As for reaching out to former students, Briggs said: “That was almost five years ago. Most of those kids would be adults now.”
Vasquez is a Widefield High School graduate. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Adams State University in Alamosa. He is married.
Vasquez also was a social studies teacher at Mountain Vista Community School in Harrison School District 2 from 2009 to 2011, said Christine O’Brien, a district spokeswoman.
As for Lundie, police learned of his alleged relationship with a female student when another student reported it to a school resource officer at another high school.
Lundie courted the student through Instagram and text messages, his arrest affidavit said. Lundie allegedly sent pictures of his erect penis to the female student, and she sent pictures of herself in her underwear and of her bare breasts, the affidavit said.
Lundie met the student at her home when her parents were away and drove her to another location where they allegedly engaged in oral sex, the affidavit said.
Other girls at the school told police that Lundie had communicated with them on Instagram, including one who said the security guard made her uncomfortable, the affidavit said. Police never charged Lundie in connection with contact with other students.
Lundie, who is the son of Overland High School principal Leon Lundie, no longer works for the school district, Smith said.
Lundie is scheduled to appear in Arapahoe County District Court on Monday.