Teachers

A former middle school teacher charged with having sexual relations with a 17-year-old boy may face an additional year in prison after being arrested again last week. Gay Davidson-Shepard, who retired this spring from Mesa View Middle School, was arrested Dec. 7 by Westminster police after investigators determined that she had violated a restraining order by calling and texting the alleged victim, according to Deputy District Attorney Angela Hong. Davidson-Shepard and her husband, former Westminster High School teacher Daniel Shepard, were arrested in April on suspicion of having sexual relations with a male Westminster High student.

If all goes well in Gary Arneson's class this year, soccer goalies won't be blocking kicks from their own teammates, basketballs won't be landing in the wrong nets and infielders won't be relaying throws to opposing baserunners. Arneson, a physical education teacher at Dwyer Middle School, recently applied for a grant through DonorsChoose.org to garb his students in team colors. The black and orange vests, which he introduced during first period Friday, will reduce confusion on the court and field — or so he hopes.

Jim Harris' reach goes well beyond the Seahawk uniform. Coach Harris mentored students who were never in his math classes and young coaches like me who never attended his school or played on his team. While Ocean View High School's gymnasium is lined with championships banners from rafter to rafter, what's really important can't be hung on the walls. Over the past nine years, Harris became one of the most impactful mentors in my life. I was 19 years old and had just started coaching the freshman basketball team at Fountain Valley High School, a team Harris coached back in the '70s.

The pretrial for two retired teachers charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old boy has been postponed until January. Former Westminster High School teacher Daniel Shepard and his wife, former Mesa View Middle School teacher Gay Davidson-Shepard, were scheduled to go to pretrial Thursday at the West Justice Center in Westminster. However, attorney Salvatore Ciulla, who represents Shepard, requested an extension. Judge John Adams set the new pretrial date for Jan. 5. Shepard and Davidson-Shepard are charged with oral copulation of a minor, sodomy of a person younger than 18 and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Shirley Knopf still walks regularly past the school where she taught for 14 years. But this summer, she was starting to have trouble recognizing the front of it. Hawes Elementary School, where Knopf taught computer classes until 1997, had become overgrown with tall weeds that nearly obscured the camellia trees around the main entrance. So Knopf, the vice president of the Huntington Beach Tree Society, got out her shovel and went to work enlisting the community. "You couldn't even see the plants," Knopf said.

The pretrial for two former teachers charged with having sexual relations with a 17-year-old boy has been rescheduled for Oct. 27. Daniel Shepard, who taught at Westminster High School, and his wife Gay Davidson-Shepard, who retired this spring from Mesa View Middle School, appeared at the West Justice Center in Westminster for a scheduled hearing Thursday. Attorney John Drummond Barnett, who represents Davidson-Shepard, asked for the postponement on both defendants' behalf.

Gay Davidson-Shepard, the former Mesa View Middle School teacher charged with having sexual relations with a 17-year-old boy, has retired from the Ocean View School District. Davidson-Shepard's retirement was effective May 28, according to district records. She was put on administrative leave after her arrest in April. An official with the district would not say whether Davidson-Shepard's retirement was connected with the case. Her husband, Daniel Shepard, who is also charged in the case, retired from Westminster High School in 2009.

A teacher and former teacher charged with having sexual relations with a 17-year-old boy are scheduled for pretrial Thursday morning. Gay Davidson-Shepard, who has been put on administrative leave from Mesa View Middle School, and her husband, Daniel Shepard, a former teacher at Westminster High School, were arrested at their Huntington Beach home April 20. The hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. in courtroom W14 of the West Justice Center...

An administrator with the Anaheim Union High School District has declined comment on the future status of Christopher John Ontiveros, an Oxford Academy teacher who was acquitted two days earlier of sexual acts with a female student. "The district cannot comment any further on the employee because of his right to confidentiality, so we really can't discuss his employment at this time," said Russell Lee-Sung, the district's assistant superintendent of human resources. Ontiveros was accused of sending a 17-year-old female student sexual text messages, making unsolicited sexual advances and sexually assaulting the girl in his classroom and car. A jury found him not guilty Monday due to lack of evidence that the relationship took place, defense attorney David Cohn said.