CALIFORNIA
NBC Bay Area
By Vicky Nguyen, Michael Bott, and Mark Villarreal
Apr 27, 2018
The mother of a former Presentation High School student is now accusing the principal of the Catholic school for girls of failing to call police when a theater teacher was caught kissing her 16-year-old-daughter. She is speaking out now after the teacher moved on to another school where he was convicted of possessing child porn on his computer and exchanging sexual texts with a 14 year old. Linda, who requested not to reveal her last name to protect her daughter’s identity, says former Presentation theater teacher Jefferey Hicks was able to victimize at least one other child because the school opted to cover up the incident with her daughter rather than report it to authorities back in 2004.
Hicks was allowed to quietly leave Presentation after admitting to the inappropriate relationship, she says, but the school left him in charge of a theater camp that summer for which the school had already collected $65,000 from parents. The teacher eventually landed at Stanbridge Academy, a private school for children with learning disabilities, and was convicted in 2014 of possessing child pornography and annoying or molesting a minor. A spokesperson for Presentation said the school could not comment on the specific allegations.
“He was 26 at the time and he was the head of the performing arts department and our daughter had just turned 16,” Linda said.
Linda said in May of 2004 she received a concerning phone call from Principal Mary Miller asking her to get to the school as soon as possible. Linda says she arrived with her husband to find Miller and one of the school’s vice principals looking somber.
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