Catholic School Teacher Charged with Touching Two Teenage Students

By Julie Zauzmer
Washington Post
July 17, 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/catholic-school-teacher-charged-with-touching-two-teenage-students/2015/07/17/8a245b52-2c95-11e5-a5ea-cf74396e59ec_story.html

A teacher at a girls’ Catholic school in Potomac was arrested Thursday, shortly after a teenage student said that he had touched her inappropriately.

A second person told police that the teacher had also touched her when she was a student at Connelly School of the Holy Child.

Justin Andrew Gordon, 40, of Poolesville faces two charges of sexually abusing a minor and two of fourth-degree sexual offense. Montgomery County police said they think other students might have also been abused. Anyone with information about other possible victims can call police at 240-773-5400.

Shannon Gomez, head of school at the independent Catholic school, said that the teenager’s family told the school July 10 that Gordon had abused the girl. The school contacted police that day and banned Gordon from the campus.

Gomez said that the school has now fired Gordon, who worked for Holy Child for 15 years, most recently as a technology assistant who taught a robotics class.

Justin A. Gordon (Montgomery County Police Department)

Police said in a statement that Gordon got to know the teenager starting in October 2014. He saw her at social and sports events, and eventually exchanged personal communications with her daily. The sexual abuse started in May.

After the teenager reported the abuse, police also spoke to a 20-year-old woman who said she met Gordon when she was a student at Holy Child in 2008, and that he also established a personal friendship with her. Officer Rick Gooddale said Gordon touched the woman inappropriately in 2012, when she was 17.

Police said that Gordon is being held on $35,000 bond.