REDLANDS, Calif. (KNX) — Investigators with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department arrested a Redlands middle school teacher on Friday on suspicion of sexually abusing a former student over the course of six years.
Joseph Michael Nardella, 53, was apprehended at his Highland home a day after the Sheriff’s Department received a complaint from a former Clement Middle School student, now 18, who alleged she was sexually abused by Nardella from ages 12 to 17.
Nardella was booked into the Central Detention Center in Sen Barnardino and was being held on $350,000 bail, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Nardella has been a history teacher for the seventh and eighth grades at Clement since 1997, and has acted as the social studies department chair for the last 15 years. He also reportedly ran the school’s intramural sports program.
The allegations against Nardella are the latest in a string of sexual abuse scandals to hit the Redalnds Unified School District in recent years. The district has paid out more than $41 million in settlements in response to lawsuits filed by former students alleging they were sexually abused by school staff.
In 2002, Clement English teacher Sean Ramiro Lopez was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing three male students between 1999 and 2001. He was convicted in 2006 of 60 felony counts, including lewd and lascivious acts on a minor under the age of 14. He was sentenced to 74 years in prison.
A spokesperson for the district did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Nardella’s arrest.
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