L.A. Unified teacher arrested for alleged child porn possession

A Los Angeles Unified School District teacher was arrested and charged Tuesday with possession of child pornography after he allegedly ordered and received through the mail sexually explicit DVDs of children, officials said.

Douglas Randolph Collins, 46, of Valencia, was taken into custody at the Van Nuys Education Center, where he had been sent after being removed from the classroom after authorities began investigating child porn allegations in October.

He had been a fifth-grade teacher at Fernangeles Elementary School in Sun Valley.

Collins was investigated by U.S. Postal inspectors and the district attorney’s office working with the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

School district officials said Tuesday that none of the allegations involving Collins related to his students and “no students were victims.”

“No teacher or employee interested in child pornography belongs in the district,” said Supt. John Deasy. “No teacher or employee who abuses any students will be tolerated.”

In a statement, school board member Nury Martinez assured parents the district “took swift action to remove the teacher from the classroom and notified the Fernangeles community as soon as law enforcement had notified us that he was under investigation.”

“As a mother and a school board member, I was outraged to once again discover an LAUSD teacher charged with a crime against children,” she said.

Adam P. Behnen, inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Los Angeles, said: “There is no crime more heinous than that which is committed against the most vulnerable victims, our children.”

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