Police arrested a Woodland High School teacher Friday on suspicion of inappropriately touching a female student.
Scott Sorgent, 44, of Stockton, was booked into the Yolo County Jail on a charge of committing a lewd act on a child 14 or 15 years old, Woodland police Sgt. Darren Imus said.
Scott Sorgent is charged with committing a lewd act on a child 14 or 15 years old. Courtesy photo
He was no longer in custody as of Saturday afternoon, a jail employee said.
Sorgent, who has taught in Woodland High’s science and technology department for less than a year, has been placed on administrative leave, said Tom Pritchard, interim superintendent of the Woodland Joint Unified School District.
“The safety of our students is our number-one priority. We began working closely with local law enforcement on an investigation once the allegation was reported,” Pritchard said Friday.
According to Imus, a police officer and a detective responded to the high school campus on North West Street at about 10 a.m. Friday after school district officials learned of and reported that Sorgent had inappropriately touched the student.
“Further investigation by the officers revealed that Sorgent had touched the female student in a lewd manner after school had ended yesterday, and made suggestive comments about her body,” Imus said in a news release.
Sorgent began teaching a “tech-9” class at Woodland High School in August 2016, according to his profile on the LinkedIn online networking service. Prior to that, he taught at Rio Valley Charter School in Lodi and Harmony Magnet Academy in Strathmore, southeast of Visalia.
Imus said the investigation remains active, and anyone who may have witnessed or been a victim of similar acts by Sorgent is asked to call the Woodland Police Department at 530-666-2411.