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Crime & Safety

Facebook Pages Defend JSerra Teacher Caught in Alleged Sex Scandal

More than 500 students, alumni and friends show support, some with "Free Aldana" T-shirts.

Hours after the story hit the news Thursday, two Facebook pages cropped in support of a JSerra Spanish teacher arrested on suspicion of child molestation.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies and confirmed Thursday afternoon that Ricardo Aldana, a Spanish teacher and coach of girls’ volleyball and boys’ soccer, .

The school promptly fired Aldana, saying in a statement, “JSerra does not tolerate inappropriate conduct between faculty/staff and minors.”

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Students Patch interviewed Thursday afternoon came to Aldana’s defense. When they returned home from school, they also decided to show their support on Facebook.

“The school did something very wrong today by firing Aldana. And they need to hear that,” said one Facebook event page “Who better else than us. We need to show our support and love for Aldana.”

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That page invited students to show up to the senior parking lot between 7:30 and 10:30 a.m. today to make homemade T-shirts of support. Almost 150 students said they were attending the event.

Wrote one student on that page: “We get in trouble…so what? It’ll be worth it. We're standing up for what we believe in and they can’t do much because the majority of the school is doing this and its prob the best way to end school ...by revolting against it :) ha. We love you aldana! ♥”

Aldana, 37 of Dana Point, is accused of having sex with a former student, who authorities would only describe as a girl 14 years or younger. The alleged incident took place in his home.

Orange County sheriff's deputies said that the girl revealed all to her mother, who reported the incident to them. He was arrested Wednesday night, and by Thursday, his biography was gone from JSerra's website and from the Tstreet Volleball website, a private, Irvine-based club where Aldana also coached.

Friends of Aldana started another Facebook page called  “Free Aldana.” As of 10:30 Thursday night, it had 480 likes. In the "about" section, it states the page’s purpose is to, “Pray for him, we love him.”

That page seeks to get students to purchase professionally made T-shirts that say in bright red lettering: “Free Aldana.”

Advised one student: “get alot, ull sell them al [sic].”

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