Former Valley High teacher held without bail in sex case

Keith Paul

Wednesday, June 7, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

A Valley High School physical education teacher was arrested Tuesday on 10 counts of sexual misconduct with a student and held without bail this morning in the Clark County jail.

Lora Rodriguez, who was booked into the jail under the name Lora L. Prince, was arrested Monday afternoon and is accused of having sexual contact with a 17-year-old female student on several occasions. Detention center officials list the last name of Rodriguez as an alias.

Rodriguez, 33, of Las Vegas, was also booked into the jail on two counts of child neglect. Rodriguez, a softball coach at the high school, will have a court appearance within two days.

In April a Metro Police patrol officer happened on a parked car with Rodriguez and the 17-year-old student. The officer investigated and noticed alcohol in the car and made an information report about the incident. No arrests were made at that time.

"The school district was made aware of it and contacted us when they received information that perhaps there was a relationship between the two that was sexual in nature," said Lt. Tom Monahan of Metro's sexual assault unit.

The officer's report started the investigation into Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was charged under a 1997 state law that makes sexual contact between a teacher and a student a crime. If the two did not have a teacher-student relationship, the sexual contact would not have been a crime since the girl was over 16 and the contact appeared to be consensual, Monahan said.

"The statute doesn't take (the relationship being consensual) into account because of the level of authority a teacher has over a student," Monahan said.

Rodriguez was in her first year teaching physical education at the school. The school district was taking steps to fire the teacher, but she resigned May 24 before the termination was final, said Mary Stanley-Larsen, a spokeswoman for the school district.

"These are very serious allegations and we take them seriously," she said.

Rodriguez was arrested by the Criminal Apprehension Team, which often tracks down fugitives in the area. Monahan said the team also routinely serves arrest warrants on people not considered fugitives.

The 10 counts indicate there was more than one occasion Rodriguez is accused of having sexual contact with the teenager, Monahan said.

While teacher-student sexual relationships gather a lot attention when they are discovered, Monahan said, "it's rare compared to the number of sex crimes that we investigate."