San Jose special ed teacher goes shirtless in virtual class, teenage student says he gave off 'weird vibe'
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: A teenager in San Jose has made headlines after sharing pictures of her special education maths teacher who appeared shirtless during a virtual class. Makaylah Herrera-Avila, who took a picture of the teacher in question, spoke to ABC7 News about the incident and all that happened after.
The teacher, Richard Cabral, works at Silver Creek High School and teaches special education maths to a class of about 10-15 students. He appeared shirtless when logging in to teach a virtual class, and Makaylah Herrera-Avila describes the incident, claiming that the teacher gave of "really weird vibes". "I realized he wasn't wearing a shirt," Makaylah told ABC7 News. "And that was kind of awkward, made me feel uncomfortable." She also said, "He seemed really awkward and kind of gave me like a weird vibe. And when he was using the camera, it was all shaking around and like, moving everywhere."
The 13-year-old student immediately called her mother, Elizabeth Avila, who asked Makaylah to take a picture as evidence, and then to immediately log off. Makaylah did so. "Some of the kids in the class, they're special needs," Elizabeth said. "So they probably don't realize that that's wrong." Elizabeth then immediately complained to the East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD) at Silver Creek, asking if the video had been recorded. It apparently hadn't, and officials claimed that that would have been a violation of privacy.
"They said no because it's a violation of privacy and there's a big old thing," Elizabeth explained. "I go, 'But what about the kids? You know, their safety, being exposed to things and can't even prove it once it's done?'" She is now asking for better monitoring to be done on teachers during these virtual classes. "This should be like a zero-tolerance kind of thing," Elizabeth said. "Like, he's grown. He knows the rules. He should not be exposing himself like that to all these minors. You know, at the end of the day, they're still kids and it's wrong."
ABC7 News has also uncovered a Twitter account that matches Cabral's name with a display photo that matches his identity and "uncovered some questionable and pornographic interests." According to the report, news of this only further disturbed Elizabeth.
"We've never had to deal with this kind of situation. You can sit there and say, 'Don't talk to strangers'. And if someone touches you, or grown up does something to you, and it's physically happening," Elizabeth continued. "But now this is virtual stuff. So, it's a whole new world, this whole cyber stuff."
ESUHSD Superintendent Chris Funk released an official statement, in which he said, "The picture appears to be an employee of ESUHSD. At this time, I'm not going to release any information on the alleged employee. I will say that the behavior is unacceptable, unprofessional and violates several district policies. This situation is under investigation. In situations like this, an employee is immediately placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation."