Gompers Teacher to Be Charged With Child Molestation, D.A.’s Office Says

A veteran teacher at Gompers Secondary School will be charged with one count of misdemeanor child molestation involving several female students from September, 1989, to April, 1990, the San Diego County district attorney’s office announced Tuesday.

Sidney J. Loveless Jr., an English teacher at the controversial Southeast San Diego school, will surrender for arraignment by next week and be released on his own recognizance, based on an arrangement made with Loveless’ attorney, Deputy Dist. Atty. Harry Elias said Tuesday.

A well-informed source told The Times on Tuesday that the agreement involves Loveless pleading guilty to a single molestation count, forgoing a trial, and that he will be required to register as a sex offender under state law. Loveless would also be fired by the San Diego Unified School District and face loss of his state teaching credential.

Kenneth W. Brooks, the attorney representing Loveless, declined comment on the case Tuesday other than to say that he has not yet talked with Elias regarding a specific date for Loveless to appear for legal proceedings.

Elias said Tuesday that his department’s monthlong review of evidence presented him by San Diego police child abuse detectives persuaded him that a single count incorporating alleged molestation of several students is the most appropriate charge to file.

Elias said he will also review police evidence regarding violations of state law by Gompers Principal Marie Thornton in allegedly failing to properly report the allegations against Loveless when first brought to her by two students in late March.

“I’m going to review those reports beginning tonight,” Elias said. Police have recommended that Thornton be cited on a misdemeanor charge for failing to immediately notify both school police and the county Integrated Child Protective Services and to follow up with a written report within 36 hours as required under state law.

Thornton has been under frequent fire this year for purported management shortcomings in her handling of teacher assignments and complaints and of a February student demonstration at Gompers. Gompers, an award-winning, high-powered math-science-computer magnet school, has been embroiled in efforts to expand its long-limited curriculum to more nonwhite neighborhood students.

Tina Dyer, attorney for the San Diego Unified School District, said Tuesday that Loveless will be suspended immediately from the district without pay until his case is concluded. Should he plead guilty or decide to go to trial and be convicted, he would be immediately fired because the state education code requires termination for conviction under the misdemeanor provision that Loveless is charged with.

Dyer said the district in such a case also informs California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which conducts its own review before deciding whether to strip the teacher of his state teaching credential.

Loveless was removed from his classroom at Gompers and has been working at a non-classroom job at the district’s Instructional Media Center in Linda Vista since police began looking into his case in early April.

Police investigators found that as many as 30 victims over several years may have been involved with Loveless, sources told The Times last month. Loveless was also counseled several years ago at Gompers by Thornton in connection with a previous case of suspected abuse, sources said.

Thornton is under investigation for not immediately reporting the accusations when she received them in late March, even though state law says that a principal or other staff member “must report” suspected child abuse “by telephone immediately, or as soon as practically possible,” and follow up with a written report within 36 hours.

Another source told The Times in April that, before contacting police, Thornton confronted Loveless during a meeting at which the two students were present. The education code states, in underlined passages, that “school personnel must keep in mind that investigation and suspected child abuse is the responsibility of the child welfare unit and, when appropriate, assesment is made by the Nurse Intervention Task Force; it is not the responsibility of school personnel.”

Although Thornton reportedly notified the Gompers school police officer the following day, Child Protective Services, which intervenes to make sure that students are adequately counseled after suspected child abuse, was not notified until almost a week later, by an assistant principal, sources said.

Thornton has declined all comment on the investigation and has retained an attorney.