Teacher Is Charged With Aiding Students in O.C. Gang Crimes

A middle school teacher has been charged with helping three students perform gang-related crimes, the Orange County district attorney’s office said Wednesday.

Ronald Cummings, 38, an English teacher at Portola Middle School in Orange, was charged with making terrorist threats, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and exhibiting an imitation firearm in a threatening manner.

If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison.

“It’s very unusual,” said Tori Richards, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. “No one can remember the last time we charged a teacher with a gang-related crime.”

A man answering Cummings’ telephone Wednesday would not identify himself or comment.

Prosecutors and police said the charges stem from an April 26 incident in which a 14-year-old student got into an argument with a 19-year-old neighbor in Orange. The argument escalated into a fistfight, and the student brandished a knife.

The student left, police said, and returned 20 minutes later with two friends in a car driven by Cummings. While he stayed in the car, police said, the three students confronted one of the neighbor’s friends and threatened to kill him.

Called to the scene, police obtained a search warrant for an apartment shared by Cummings and one of the students. Investigators said they found gang-related paraphernalia and a replica of a gun.

Two of the students--Jose Salamanca and Jorge Medina, both 18--were charged with felony gang-related crimes and being active members of a criminal street gang. Both are in jail and scheduled to appear in court Friday.

The 14-year-old, whose name was withheld, was sentenced to 60 days in jail after pleading guilty to a charge of making a gang-related felony terrorist threat.

Arraignment for Cummings, who posted $50,000 bail, is set for June 10.

School officials said Cummings, of Orange, teaches about 150 students at Portola, which has more than 900 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

“The word we have from the school so far is that things are pretty calm” regarding news of the charges against the teacher, said Ralph Jameson, assistant superintendent for Orange Unified School District.

Cummings, who has worked for the district since 1998, was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the case.

“We are working on some kind of communication to the students in his classes so that we can give them information about what to expect,” Jameson said.

Other district officials declined to comment on specifics of the teacher’s case, but expressed concern.

“Nobody likes to hear things,” school board member John Ortega said. “We have to just let the judicial system do its thing, then we will respond.”

Board member Kathy Moffat described the charges as “pretty alarming.”

“We need the best possible role models for our kids to keep them on the best path,” she said, “and, by their nature, gangs are not that.”