Ex-Ocean View High teacher sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting 17-year-old boy

A former science teacher at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach was sentenced Friday to two years in state prison for sexually assaulting a minor whom he had met at a school function and later took in to live with him.

Drew Bueno-Potts, 43, of Long Beach also was ordered to register as a sex offender for life, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Bueno-Potts was arrested at his home Oct. 23 after a male teenager had told police in July that he had been assaulted multiple times between July 2017 and December 2017, according to Long Beach police. The victim was 17 at the time of the assaults, police said.

Bueno-Potts previously was charged with four counts of sodomy by intoxication, sodomy of a person under 18, sexual penetration by a foreign object and intoxication, and sexual penetration by foreign object of a person under 18, the district attorney’s office said.

He accepted a plea agreement Feb. 1 and pleaded no contest to one count of sodomy of a minor, according to the DA’s office.

The teenager, who was not a student at Ocean View, met the teacher at a school event, police said. Bueno-Potts befriended the boy and later took him in to live with him, police said. The victim lived with Bueno-Potts in July and August 2017, prosecutors said.

Bueno-Potts was accused of assaulting the boy twice at his Long Beach home and once in San Francisco. He also was accused of an attempted assault at his home, police said.

Bueno-Potts provided the teen with alcohol and alkyl nitrate, a stimulant commonly known as a popper, police said.

At the time of his arrest, Bueno-Potts was a science teacher and department chairman at Ocean View High. His name was removed from the school’s online staff directory Feb. 5. The Huntington Beach Union High School District has declined to comment about the matter, calling it a personnel issue.

Bueno-Potts is originally from New Orleans and has taught at high schools and middle schools in Azusa, Redondo Beach, Cerritos, Ontario and the Corona-Norco school district, according to online profiles.