Palo Alto Music Teacher Arrested For Sex Crimes
PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- An after-school music teacher associated with the popular School Of Rock program has been arrested for committing sex crimes against a 15-year-old student, Palo Alto police announced Tuesday.
Palo Alto police detectives said they received information from another law enforcement agency on July 13th that a music teacher had been sexually abusing a juvenile student.
The investigation revealed that the suspect was employed as a part-time music teacher at the School of Rock, located at 2645 Middlefield Road, and that the 15-year-old victim had been his student over the past several months.
Detectives said the sexual abuse allegedly occurred when the suspect and the victim met at other locations in Palo Alto.
An arrest warrant was issued on July 19th charging John Patrick Root with multiple felony sex crimes.
Palo Alto police detectives were able to locate Root in San Francisco and with the assistance of officers from the San Francisco Police Department take him into custody.
Root was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on four felony counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor.
The School of Rock issued a statement Tuesday saying it was cooperating with investigators and had fired Root.
"Our highest priority is the safety of our students and we immediately engaged in working with the Police Department to assist in their investigation," the statement read. "Our employee safety procedures require all staff and faculty to complete background checks and complete a code of conduct. In this particular case, we completed a background check and the former teacher executed a Code of Conduct."
"As soon as we learned of the investigation, we terminated his employment," the statement continued. "Additionally, we informed our parent community so that they were immediately aware of his termination and the investigation."
Detectives are unaware of any additional victims at this time, but are working with the school to investigate the possibility.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through our free mobile app, downloadable at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay
