Police Urge Victims, Witnesses of Teacher Sex Abuse to Come Forward

Two weeks after new sex abuse charges were filed against a former substitute teacher who had worked at 20 Montgomery County Public Schools since the fall of 2013, investigators held a press conference Thursday urging additional victims to contact police.

The school system early in November notified parents that it continued to look into the employment record of Jose Pineda, 50, of Gaithersburg, the teacher who was arrested for inappropriate contact with students at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown.

Montgomery County Police charged Pineda on Oct. 17 with one count of third-degree sex offense. Since that arrest, three more victims have come forward with similar allegations.

On Nov. 21, detectives charged Pineda with three additional counts of third-degree sex offense and three counts of sexual abuse of a minor. Two of the victims were students at Ridgeview Middle School and one was a victim student at Forest Oak Middle School. At the times of the alleged sex offenses the students were in either the sixth or seventh grade.

Another nine female students have since reported that Pineda touched them during the school day. Although these nine acts do not rise to the level of criminal violations, these students’ accounts have deepened the investigation since the students are valuable witnesses, investigators said Dec. 4.

At the press conference investigators urged any other witnesses or victims to contact police.

The nine incidents all took place in 2014, with six of the contacts at Ridgeview Middle School and three incidents happening at Gaithersburg Middle School.

A list of the schools where Pineda worked is included here.

Pineda taught about 111 days between November of 2013 and September of 2014. Authorities say he taught a variety of grades at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and taught various subjects, including English, math, science, biology, computer science, technology, special education classes, and English for Speakers of Other Languages classes.

Anyone with information about the cases is asked to call the Special Victims Investigations Division at 240-773-5400.

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New Sexual Abuse Charges Filed Against Former Teacher