LAKE ISABELLA, Calif. (KERO) — Parents react to the news that a Kern Valley High School teacher has been charged with five felonies following an alleged inappropriate relationship with a student.
- A Kern Valley High School teacher was arrested on April 4th and eventually charged with numerous sex crimes.
- On march 5, KCSO deputies came to the high school to investigate Renuado.
“I think a lot of parents expected some sort of phone call, email,” said Kimberley Bletcher, mother of a Kern Valley High School Student.
According to Kern County’s Sheriff's Office, on March 5, Sheriff’s deputies were called to the high school campus to investigate Christopher Renaudo, a teacher at Kern Valley High, ultimately learning of an inappropriate relationship between Renaudo and a student.
“I first heard about maybe just a few weeks ago, my daughter came home talking about what everybody is talking about in school and I told her, don't be saying anything if you don’t know it's true,” said Bletcher.
A month later sheriff investigators arrested Renaudo on April 4 on five felony charges including sexual penetration with a foreign object for a victim under 18, oral copulation with a person under 18, sexual battery, and exhibiting harmful matter to a minor.
He has pled not guilty to the charges.
“I was just kind of appalled by everything that you did hear,” Bletcher said.
Sexually explicit messages allegedly sent from Renaudo to the student have circulated throughout the school.
Parents like Josh Kopperman saw and read these messages and was concerned, but believed the school did what it should have.
“Like everybody, it’s an ongoing investigation and there’s privacy issues, so I don't know how much information they can or can’t get out,” said Kopperman, who has a daughter that was in Renaudo’s class.
“All my information came from my daughter and it was right away.”
Renaudo was also arrested by the Bakersfield Police Department on March 17 at his residence in Bakersfield for battery of a spouse. No charges have been filed regarding this arrest.
“I think the school did what they were supposed to do and now it’s in the legal systems hands,” Kopperman said.
Bletcher says she is hoping for more information from official sources.
“As of right now it’s hearsay, ‘This person said this, did you read this one? Oh I heard about this guy,’ So that’s not gonna work out, it’s just gonna make things worse.”
Renaudo is scheduled to be back in court on April 17 for a pre preliminary hearing.
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