SAN CLEMENTE : Teaching Credentials Taken in Morals Case

A former San Clemente High School drama teacher who was convicted last year of five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor has had his teaching credentials revoked by a state commission.

William George Gekas Jr., 43, has been ordered by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to return all documents authorizing him to teach school in California, according to a letter dated Oct. 16 and signed by Philip A. Fitch, the commission’s executive secretary.

The commission took the action during meetings held Oct. 5 and 6, the letter said. Gekas had appealed a 1987 recommendation by the commission’s investigative arm that his credentials be revoked. The appeal went before an administrative law judge in the state attorney general’s office, which ruled against Gekas on Aug. 25.

The credentialing commission’s review of Gekas was prompted by complaints from San Clemente resident Nancy Padberg regarding his classroom behavior. Padberg’s complaint said the teacher ran a summer modeling course where underage girls were photographed semi-nude. It also said that Gekas coerced female students to date him by promising to raise their grades.

Padberg and Gekas could not be reached for comment Thursday.

“I just assumed that this would be an obvious step to be taken after his conviction,” said Capistrano Unified School District Supt. Jerome Thornsley, who was sent a copy of the commission’s action.

Gekas stood trial in March, 1988, on charges filed by the Orange County district attorney’s office, with cooperation from the mother of a 17-year-old female student at San Clemente High School.

The charges alleged that Gekas had been dating the student against her mother’s orders. The mother had told her daughter, who is now 20, not to see the teacher outside of the classroom.

In June, 1988, the drama teacher was convicted of five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was sentenced to eight months in jail and five years of probation. Gekas unsuccessfully appealed the ruling last May and began serving the sentence Aug. 25 on work furlough at the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange.

Gekas taught at San Clemente High School from 1978 until his resignation in April, 1988. During his tenure there, he won numerous awards for school theatrical productions.

During trial proceedings in June, 1988, Thornsley and San Clemente High School Vice Principal Jeffrey Davis testified on Gekas’ behalf, saying that they believed he was the victim of a group of local parents who sought to oust him from the school district.