Former Village View teacher sentenced

Jose Paul Corona

A Santa Ana jury sentenced 28-year-old Jason Abhyankar, a former

Huntington Beach teacher, to 24 years in prison for child

molestation.

Abhyankar, a former Surf City resident and elementary school

teacher, was sentenced last week after being convicted in March of

three counts of child molestation.

He was convicted of molesting three male students while he was a

teacher in Huntington Beach and Trabuco Canyon, said Susan Schroeder,

deputy district attorney and spokeswoman for the Orange County

District Attorney’s Office.

Police began investigating Abhyankar in 1999 while he was teaching

at Portola Hills Elementary School in Trabuco Canyon after a student

accused him of wrongdoing.

A total of four boys, two at Village View School Elementary School

in Huntington Beach and two at Portola Hills, claimed Abhyankar had

molested them.

Abhyankar taught at Village View from September 1997 to June 1999

when he resigned without giving a reason.

All of the acts took place between September 1998 and January 2000. All of the boys involved were between the ages of 9 and 11.