A female teacher at Gilroy High School is being investigated for
allegedly slapping and pushing three students, police said.
A female teacher at Gilroy High School is being investigated for allegedly slapping and pushing three students, police said.
Although police and school officials would not release the teacher’s name, parents, students and teachers confirmed that the woman was Jan Dietzgen, an Honors English teacher.
On Oct. 13, the mother of a female GHS student reported the teacher to the Gilroy Police Department. During the week-long investigation that followed, School Resource Officer Cherie Somavia discovered that three students – a 14-year-old female, a 15-year-old male and a 16-year-old female – claimed to have been pushed or slapped by the teacher.
After interviewing the victims, teacher and witnesses, Somavia concluded that the students had been assaulted on three separate occasions within a week’s time. One student claims to have been slapped across the face and the other two were pushed, Sgt. Jim Gillio said. Although he would not say whether the teacher was provoked, the incidents did happen when other students were around, he said. All three students’ families want to press charges, he said.
Because the alleged crime is a misdemeanor that was not committed in the presence of police, the teacher has not been arrested and the case has been sent to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office for review, Gillio said. The district attorney can drop the case or issue an arrest warrant, he said.
The Gilroy Unified School District has been cooperating with the authorities, Gillio said, to “ensure that the matter is handled appropriately.”
Superintendent Deborah Flores refused to identify the teacher or say whether she had been suspended.
“She has the right to confidentiality and we’re going to honor that,” Flores said. The district will be conducting its own investigation, she said.
Dietzgen didn’t answer a knock at her locked classroom door Thursday and school staff would not direct calls to her voicemail – the usual procedure – saying she was not at school Thursday and that all messages needed to be forwarded.
Principal James Maxwell remained equally tight-lipped and sent out an e-mail discouraging school staff from talking about the incidents, teachers said.
“I’m not going to allow the media to disrupt the school day,” Maxwell said.
In reaction to hearing the allegations against Dietzgen, a teacher who asked not to be identified because of Maxwell’s e-mail said she was shocked.
Dietzgen “was so nice to work with. I just can’t see her doing that or anything that isn’t right for the kids,” the teacher said.
One of Dietzgen’s prior students also remembered a pleasant teacher.
“She would never do that,” said Andrea Rodriguez, a junior who had Dietzgen for English the previous year. Rodriguez heard the news from a friend whose teacher announced in class that Dietzgen was the teacher involved in the incidents.
“She’s a really nice lady. I learned a lot from her,” Rodriguez said.
