Middle school counselor accused of lewdness with student

By Kyle B. Hansen, Jean Reid Norman

Published Tuesday, April 14, 2009 | 2:12 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, April 14, 2009 | 7:25 p.m.

A middle school counselor and assistant basketball coach has been arrested in connection with sexually explicit text messages sent to one of his 13-year-old players, according to court documents and Metro Police.

Franz Fajardo, 39, a counselor at Anthony Saville Middle School, 8101 N. Torrey Pines Drive, was booked April 11 on charges of lewdness with a minor under 14 and using technology to lure a minor, according to the arrest report.

Fajardo has posted bail, his attorney Betsy Allen said. She did not know the amount.

Allen said the girl’s account of her relationship with Fajardo consisted of “allegations and that’s it.”

Police were called after a cousin found text messages on the girl’s phone and forwarded them to the girl’s mother, the report said. The report said the messages make mention of sexual acts and say “I love you :)” They were sent from Fajardo’s cellular phone number, the arrest report said.

“You had attentive parents that were paying attention to text messages of their children and brought it to the authorities’ attention, which led to the arrest and the investigation,” said Metro Lt. John Bradshaw during a Tuesday afternoon a press conference.

The seventh-grade girl reportedly told police she has known Fajardo since the beginning of sixth grade and met him when he was her assistant basketball coach, according to the arrest report.

Her mother became suspicious when she noticed that her daughter was seeing Fajardo outside of school and found out that the girl was texting Fajardo when she was with friends, the report said.

The girl described Fajardo to police as her boyfriend and said she believes Fajardo, who is married, considers her his girlfriend, according to the report.

She told police they planned to be together once she is ready to go to college and to wait for sexual activity until she is 16, the report said.

The girl told police that she and Fajardo knew that it would be illegal to engage in sexual activity, but they had kissed on the mouth on numerous occasions in his office, the report said.

The mother told Fajardo in January that his contact with her daughter was inappropriate and she was uncomfortable with it, according to the arrest report.

Fajardo has taught in the Clark County School District since October 2003, according to a School District spokeswoman.

If convicted, Fajardo could face 10 years to life in prison on the lewdness charge, police said.

Bradshaw stressed the importance of parental supervision in preventing inappropriate conduct between teenagers and adults. He urged parents to be nosy and to “invade their privacy.”

“Parents need to look at the phone bills; they need to review the text messages,” Bradshaw said. “When it comes to kids, the No. 1 prevention is parents taking care of their own kids in their own house and understanding what they’re involved in.

“No one’s immune … You may think your kids are immune from this, but no one is immune from being subjected to this.”

Bradshaw also warned that teenagers who send nude pictures of themselves by cell phone can be prosecuted.

“When you send that stuff texting over a cell phone, in essence that’s child pornography and that is a felony and many times they’re not aware of that,” he said.