Teacher Arrested For Allegedly Having Sex With Children

INDIAN WELLS — Robert Keith Bryan, 59, a teacher at Gerald R. Ford Elementary School was arrested last week on suspicion of sexually assaulting a fourth grade girl and an undetermined number of other children.

Bryan received his California teaching credential in 1978, and has been working within the Desert Sands Unified School District since 1986, according to Jeff Kaye, the district’s director of Security and Safety Services.

Employment records indicated that Bryan previously taught at Lincoln and Kennedy elementary schools, but officials did not comment on why Bryan had been transferred from school to school. Officials also said they could not locate his extended employment records to determine if Bryan had worked in the Coachella Valley Unified School District in the past, according to Mari Tarango, a CVUSD public information officer.

According to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) website, Bryan earned a multiple-subject teaching credential authorizing him to teach grades K through 12, including preschool and adult education classes. No disciplinary actions were listed on the CCTC website.

Bryan, a resident of Palm Desert, posted a $220,000 bail on Thursday, Aug. 2 and was released from the Riverside County Jail in Indio.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s department received a report in July that a fourth-grader had been sexually assaulted at the Gerald R. Ford Elementary School located in Indian Wells. The investigation revealed several additional victims but the exact number has not been determined.

Bryan was arrested at his Palm Desert home last Wednesday morning, according to Indio jail inmate records. He was detained on suspicion of 11 preliminary felony charges, four of them for lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and seven of them for annoying or molesting a child.

Formal charges were filed last Monday and the criminal case is currently making its way through the DA’s office.

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