Teacher Accused Of Having Sex With Students Appears In Court
Woman Faces Multiple Counts Of Lewd Acts With Children

POSTED: 10:23 am PST January 6, 2005
UPDATED: 4:29 pm PST January 6, 2005

ORANGE, Calif. -- An Orange middle school teacher accused of having sexual contact with two 13-year-old boys who were former students was arraigned Thursday.

IMAGES: Teacher Faces Charges

Sarah Suzanne Bench-Salorio, 28, of Orange, was charged with 20 counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old. The suspect, who taught for two years at Santiago Charter Middle School, was arrested Tuesday, a day after one of the boys told his parents about the alleged contact with his former teacher, Sgt. Dave Hill said.

Bench-Salorio, who taught reading and English, was booked Wednesday at the Orange County Jail, with bond set at $1 million, a jail clerk said.

"Our investigation indicates that the teacher initiated the sexual contact, and that this contact took place over a period of several months," Hill said. "We're looking at events that spanned several months throughout 2004, and part of that investigation is to determine if it happened sooner than that. We believe the contact took place at various locations and we're investigating whether it was at the parties' homes or the school."

After the one boy came forward, a follow-up investigation "determined there was a second victim," Hill said, but he did not know if both boys knew about each other.

"We are confident in the solidity of our charges," he said.

The district attorney said Bench-Solorio seduced the students over dinner, and through e-mails and phone calls, during a series of months before the alleged sexual contact.

An attorney for Bench-Solorio said she is "embarrassed."

She did not enter a plea Thursday. Another court appearance is scheduled for next week.

Bench-Salorio is married to Christopher Salorio, 30, an electrical foreman who garnered 45 percent of votes but lost a bid for trustee in the Orange Unified School District in the November election, the Los Angeles Times reported. The couple are raising his three siblings -- ages 5, 10 and 14 -- as foster children, according to the newspaper.

Orange Unified School District Superintendent Robert French said Bench-Salorio has been placed on administrative leave, and the district is cooperating in the investigation.

"This is a personnel matter, and on that basis the district can give no additional information. However, the primary concern of the district is always the safety and welfare of its students," French said.

Under provisions of the California Penal Code, police notified the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing of Bench-Salorio's arrest, Hill said.

Investigators are trying to determine if there are other victims, he said. Anyone with information that may be pertinent to the case is asked to call the Orange Police Department at (714) 744-7444.

I wish the hot German substitute with big boobs in grade school abused me

I wouldn't call that abuse.

I would call this abuse.

If one places the teacher as a male assaulting a female student, there would be no question.

Male or female, this is abuse and is sick.

Can we consolidate all of these into one thread.

--PunkDavid

Your sig just made me laugh really hard.

married, too. i feel sorry for the husband.

No you don't

Where were these compassionate touchy feely (sexually experienced) nymphos when I was in middle school???

no shit, what the fuck?

and dont give me this shit, a 14 year old boy getting his wang mouthified...hormones are racing at that point, i hardly feel he felt abused..

i call bullshit on him...

he wants more, hell i do

damn you mrs groz...why didnt you abuse me?!?!?

I know! She could probably fit his Cock AND Balls into her mouth being the ripe young age of 14!

Ok, cool it on the hard core pornography please.

--PunkDavid

I knew a kid that had sex with one of our teachers. I'm pretty sure it only happend once and very few people knew about it. I think they were both embarassed, she was a bit of a butterface.

I'm confounded as to why this is happening to such a degree in the US. There's a tremendous amount of proactive and reactionary attention given to this, and it's not like teaching is just a casual day job for sex offenders. I wonder if it's something of a cultural issue, or if it's happening all over the place and is discovered more often here for one reason or another, or what's going on.

I remember two years ago Raleigh, North Carolina was so desperate for teachers (due to growth, a massive number of retirees, and the comparatively small number of new teachers out there) that they were literally signing contracts with any certified teacher who would sign, on the spot. Maybe that kind of crazed hiring leaves more room for error.

Ok, on a serious note.

This IS a crime.
What you have is an adult authority figure manipulating minors and committing acts of crime with them. There is a reason this is illegal. There is very little difference between a male teacher fucking a 14 year old girl and what happened in these recent cases. You have a person in power, a teacher for chrisssakes, emotionally abusing teenaged children. If the 15 year old boys are so grown up and mature, then they would know that this is WRONG behaviour, not intriguing and perfectly OK to engage in.

Seriously, these boy could be scarred for a long time.

They're going to be really damaged when they find out that no high school girl can give head like that teacher did. The disappointment may scar them for weeks.

Actually seriously. If there's another post along the lines of, "where were these teachers when I was in High School," I'm going to lock this because it means there's obviously nothing intelligent left to say on this topic.

--PunkDavid

Are you joking or do you honestly think that teachers manipulating students like this is anything other than criminal?

I'm totally joking, hence the "actually seriously" when I stopped joking.

--PunkDavid