PSUSD sends letter to parents after Special Education aid arrested
The Palm Springs Unified School District has sent out a letter to the parents and guardians of Special Education students at Desert Hot Springs High School in response to a classroom aid who was recently arrested on felony charges related to a child porn ring and sexually assaulting minors.
District officials wrote that they are shocked and saddened to learn of the allegations against 43-year-old David John Yoder. The resident of Desert Hot Springs is accused with two alleged accomplices of producing child pornography with boys they lured away from Riverside County parks, sometimes by offering to help them become child models.
P.S.U.S.D. officials wrote: the Safety of our students is and always will be a top priority. If you feel that your child may have had contact with Mr. John Yoder that you find questionable, you are urged to report it to the Desert Hot Springs Police Dept at (760) 329-6411. We are extremely grateful to our local law enforcement officials who have been working on this case, and we are cooperating fully with their investigation. If you would like your child to speak to a counselor for any needed support, please contact your school principal.
Yoder is on unpaid leave pending the outcome of his trial. School officials said, to their knowledge, he was not alone with students during his employment with the district. Officials also said in the letter that it hasn’t received any reports of alleged incidents involving Yoder with its students while he has been on school campus.
Officials said Yoder was hired in 2008 as a Special Education aide and he passed all of the standard background screening for P.S.U.S.D. employment, including fingerprint clearance from the Department of Justice.
An FBI fingerprint screening is also conducted for all employees coming from outside of California, district officials said in the letter.
Yoder worked at the Center for Learning and Development until 2012, and then at Palm Springs High School and Painted Hills Middle School during the 2013-2014 school year. He was assigned to Desert Hot Springs High School beginning in July 2014. Yoder also served as a substitute aide at Desert Springs Middle School (one day only) and at Julius Corsini Elementary School for assigned single days during the school year.
