SANTA CRUZ — A 42-year-old high school math teacher is facing arraignment this week on allegations of “grooming” a 17-year-old student with alleged intention of child sexual exploitation, police said Monday.
Santa Cruz Police Department detectives arrested Trung Minh Lai on Friday after he allegedly arranged to meet with a student off campus to engage in lewd acts, according to a department press release.
The Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office filed amended charges Monday including felonies dated June 6 related to communicating with a minor for a lewd act and attempted unlawful sexual intercourse. An additional felony count, dated Friday, related to meeting a minor for lewd purposes. Lai also faces a June 6 misdemeanor charge for child molestation. Lai, who posted $30,000 bail and was released over the weekend, according to court documents, is set to appear before Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Denine Guy at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday.
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According to his LinkedIn resume, past Sentinel reporting and a biography on the public charter school’s website, Lai began teaching math at Pacific Collegiate School in 2013. The former video game programmer and Vietnam native grew up in the Bay Area and attended Stanford University for a bachelor’s in computer science, according to the posted information. Lai was listed as having served as a faculty adviser for the school’s math club, badminton club and student government, according to the school’s site.
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Detectives notified Pacific Collegiate School and officials reportedly have been cooperating with investigators to assist with this investigation, police said. A message left for Pacific College School Head of School Maria Reitano was not immediately returned Monday. An automated email response indicated she would be out of the office through July 21.
Reitano later responded by email to say that the school community is “shocked and saddened by recent news of Mr. Lai’s arrest.”
“At this time, PCS has no independent information as to any of the underlying facts supporting Mr. Trung’s arrest, other than what is publicly available,” Reitano wrote. “As student safety and well-being are priorities for our school, PCS is fully cooperating with law enforcement investigating these serious allegations. Mr. Lai will not be returning to the classroom in August.”
