Teacher Faces 14 Counts of Molestation

A Valinda elementary school teacher was charged with 14 counts of child molestation Tuesday after numerous female students complained that he fondled them in his fourth-grade class.

Leslie Humberto Tompkins, 46, was arrested at Valinda Elementary School on June 13 after reports from a group of female students to a teacher’s aide that Tompkins had touched them in ways that made them uncomfortable, police said. Tompkins’ lawyer denied the allegations Tuesday.

Twenty students, 19 of them girls, told police that Tompkins had touched their buttocks or breasts over their clothes, Sheriff’s Detective Amelia Wadkins said.

The students, ranging in age from 9 to 11, told police that the touching started shortly after the beginning of the school year in September and, with some of them, continued on a daily basis until Tompkins’ arrest two days before the end of school.

Wadkins, who interviewed several of the female students, said they told her that Tompkins patted and squeezed their buttocks when they went to him for advice on school work. Some said he also rubbed their legs and touched their breasts over their clothing, Wadkins said.

Tompkins did not appear at his arraignment Tuesday. His attorney, John Meyers, entered a not-guilty plea to all 14 misdemeanor charges at Citrus Municipal Court in West Covina. Tompkins is to appear at a pretrial hearing on Aug. 3.

A teacher in the Hacienda-La Puente Unified School District for 15 years, Tompkins has been barred from the classroom until the case is resolved, a district official said.

Meyers said his client is baffled by the charges.

“He has absolutely no idea of how he can be accused of annoying 14 children,” Meyers said. He added that the children’s statements, even if true, do not prove criminal activity. “I don’t think there’s anything in the testimony that indicates that Mr. Tompkins is guilty of anything but being a concerned teacher.”

Most students told police they believed that the teacher’s behavior was wrong but did not report it sooner because they were afraid of getting in trouble.

Some children told parents or siblings about the incidents and were told that the teacher was probably just being friendly, police said. However, most parents were unaware of the situation until Tompkins’ arrest.

“I’m very angry,” said the mother of one of the students, who refused to be quoted by name. “I feel that my tax dollars paid that man to fondle our kids and that shouldn’t be.”

The mother said that over the last year, she and some other parents had noticed that the children were biting their nails, losing sleep, having nightmares and wetting their beds. The students, she said, often refused to go to school and wore unseasonably warm clothes.

“The parents we talked to were wondering, ‘Why do they dress like that?’ ” she said. “We all thought it was the new style. . . . There were signs that I guess we didn’t pick up on.”