School Official Seized in Child Sex Abuse Case

An elementary school principal was arrested here Tuesday for investigation of sexual assault.

Virgil F. Williams, 54, was booked and held in lieu of $100,000 bail at the Santa Barbara County Jail, Lt. Gary Tieso said.

The investigation was initiated last week on information from the Carpinteria Unified School District, City Manager Alan Coates said.

“Mr. Williams will be on a formal leave of absence as principal of Main Elementary School pending the court’s disposition,” Coates said, reading an official city statement.

The district’s superintendent was unavailable for comment.

Two detectives had been assigned “to interview specifically named children,” Tieso said.

The officer declined to say how many children were involved or give their ages. He said the investigation is continuing.

” . . . An arrest of this type and this nature in a community this size is felt, I feel, much more severely than in a larger community,” Tieso said.

Carpinteria, on the coast about 10 miles east of Santa Barbara, has about 11,000 residents.