Dance instructor jailed, accused of molesting 13-year-old girl

A dance instructor who worked in Upland and Hesperia is accused of molesting a 13-year-old student and authorities say there could be more victims.

Thomas Cook, 22, was arrested Saturday morning at the Dance Dynamics studio in Hesperia by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts on a child and oral copulation on a child, authorities said.

Detectives had been tipped off a day earlier that Cook was allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with the teenage girl, officials said.

Cook, a Victorville resident, worked as an instructor with Dance Dynamics at its Hesperia and Upland locations and regularly traveled with the dancers to competitions and conventions in New York and Las Vegas, authorities said. The company’s website states it teaches children as young as 3.

Cook is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in a Victorville courtroom Tuesday morning, jail records show.

Anyone with information is asked to call sheriff’s department investigators at (760) 947-1500.

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