Police: Ex-Phoenix teacher sexually abused students
Phoenix police arrested an after-school arts and crafts instructor and former Phoenix elementary school teacher Tuesday after investigators said he sexually abused children -- including his students -- for more than a decade.
Jose Ruben Mada's arrest Tuesday was related to crimes investigators believe he committed against a teenage girl he knew in the mid-1990s, and the police report includes allegations of Mada's impropriety with students that date back to the early 2000s.
Police said Mada's accuser was abused between 1995 and 1997, around the time she was in eighth grade. She told police Mada would come into her room and touch her breasts and vagina while kissing her, reports show.
She told police Mada told her not to tell anyone.
Police said the woman gave investigators a letter Mada had written to her stating his actions were unacceptable. When confronted by the victim last month, reports show Mada said he did not know exactly why he did it, it was "just one of those things that happened."
The police report also includes allegations that Mada, 54, inappropriately touched and kissed his students over the years. Mada is currently an instructor for an after-school arts and crafts program for children ages 6 to 12, police said.
Documents from the State Board of Education show Mada was fired from the Phoenix Elementary School District in 2002 -- when he was a fourth-grade teacher at Bethune Elementary -- after sexual-harassment charges.
Investigators at the time gave Mada a polygraph test after a third-grade girl alleged he lifted her shirt above her breasts and rubbed her stomach. He was cleared of any criminal conduct after the examination.
Mada then went on to teach at Rose Linda Elementary in the Roosevelt Elementary School District.
He resigned in 2009 after one of his students told the school nurse she was afraid of him because he would kiss her, touch her legs and slap her on the buttocks, according to State Board of Education documents. Police were unable to prove any criminal acts had been committed in that incident, according to documents from the State Board of Education.
Mada surrendered his teaching certificate in 2010.
He admitted he has struggled with his sexual attraction to children for years, police reports show.
Roosevelt and Phoenix elementary school districts have not responded to requests for comment.
Police reports show Mada was a teacher and teacher's aide for 26 years. He is being held without bond on charges of dangerous crimes against children.
Phoenix Police Spokesman Jonathan Howard said Mada has held his arts and crafts coordinator position since August 2012, and the City of Phoenix has started his termination process.