A high school counselor in Los Angeles has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy — with police believing she likely abused other kids.
Julie Tichon, 37, was arrested late last month for a “series of sexual assaults” against the teen earlier this year while she was a counselor at YULA High School, a modern Orthodox Jewish yeshiva, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said Tuesday.
Police revealed details of the arrest while “seeking additional victims and witnesses in a series of sexual assaults in West Los Angeles,” without saying how many are thought to be involved.
“The suspect used her position of responsibility to gain these victims’ trust, then began inappropriate sexual relationships with them,” LAPD Detective Russ Hess said in Tuesday’s appeal.
“Rather than advising them, she was abusing them.”
So far, Tichon has been charged with three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and one count of oral copulation of a person under 18 and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
She has pleaded not guilty and was released to her own recognizance, the DA’s office said.
She is expected back in court on Nov. 1.
Tichon is believed to have worked at YULA High School for about four years, though she is no longer listed on the school website.
An email that YULA head of school Rabbi Arye Sufrin sent to parents in late May indicated that the school was aware of at least one other victim, according to a report from the Forward.
In the May 28 notification, Sufrin explained that a female staff member on the boys’ campus was accused of having “an inappropriate relationship of a sexual nature” with two male students, the outlet said.
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Sufrin claimed the school had reported the allegations to the LAPD and that the staffer was no longer employed by YULA.
YULA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
https://nypost.com/2024/09/25/us-news/high-school-counselor-accused-of-sexually-abusing-students/