A Long Beach Unified teacher who is also the husband of a school board member was placed on paid administrative leave Thursday as the district investigates allegations that he sexually abused a student decades ago.
Rogelio López, who teaches at John Muir Academy, is accused in a recently filed civil lawsuit of grooming and sexually abusing a student between 1999 and 2001 while he worked at Burcham Elementary School, according to the complaint. Spencer Lucas, the plaintiff’s lead attorney, said López abused his client multiple times in a classroom while she was in fifth grade.
López has been instructed not to comment on the case pending the investigation, according to his wife, school board member Maria Isabel López. “We believe that these allegations are unequivocally and categorically false,” she said. “We look forward to the full investigation to clear his name.”…