Snapchat Scandal And Explicit Photo Leads To Calls For Patterson Mayor's Resignation
PATTERSON (CBS13) - A Snapchat scandal has the Patterson mayor under fire with calls for him to resign.
Mayor Dennis McCord is also a math teacher at Patterson High. The scandal centers around a photo a 15-year-old female student sent him, wearing a bikini.
CBS13 has obtained a Patterson police report showing their investigation of the mayor receiving an explicit Snapchat photo from a teenage female student wearing a bikini top and a thong. The police report shows the mayor told the school principal he deleted the photo and blocked her.
A search warrant of Snapchat found the mayor responded to the photo with a reply, 'wish I was there.' The police investigation found no criminal wrongdoing.
Kandace Weyhrauch lives in Patterson and has now launched a petition calling for McCord's resignation as mayor.
"I understand that you can't prosecute someone if a crime hasn't been committed, but a teacher should be held to a higher standard just like a mayor should be held to a higher standard," Weyhrauch said.
The Patterson Unified School District has placed McCord on paid administrative leave while it does its own investigation.
"I was pretty sick to my stomach," Weyhrauch said. "Just thinking about what would make a girl comfortable enough, with a male teacher, of his age to send a picture like that."
McCord declined a request for an interview with CBS13.
On Tuesday, he led the Patterson council meeting while several people testified in the public comment they want him to resign. McCord did not respond.
"With what happened it was totally in the wrong, he knows it was in the wrong, everybody knows it was in the wrong, and we can't trust him," Patterson resident Stewart Walker said.
A mayor's Snapchat exchange, including receiving an explicit photo of a teen girl in a bikini.
Police say it didn't break the law. What about public trust?
"Disgusting, just disgusting," Weyhrauch said.
The Snapchat exchange was first discovered by the teen's parents, who first reported it to the principal at Patterson High School in October.