Police Charge Potomac Private School Teacher With Sex Abuse of Two Students (PHOTO)
Justin Gordon
PHOTO | MCPD.
A private school teacher was charged with two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and two counts of fourth-degree sexual offense, according to Montgomery County Police.
Justin Andrew Gordon, 40, of Poolesville, was arrested on July 16. Detectives were investigating reports from two students of inappropriate sexual contact between Gordon and them that occurred in 2012 and 2015.
Gordon was a robotics teacher at Connelly School of the Holy Child in Potomac, and police said he initiated a relationship with one of the victims in October 2014. According to police, the relationship started with “with informal association at social and sporting events, then increased to daily personal communications, and by May of 2015, had escalated to inappropriate sexual touching.”
Along the investigation, police received reports from a second victim. Police said the girl was a teenager student in Connelly School of the Holy Child in 2008 when Gordon “cultivated” a friendship and by 2012 turned into a relationship with inappropriate sexual contact.
Staff from Connelly School of the Holy Child- an all-girls school for grades six through 12- said the institution will release a statement later in the day.
Gordon was also the moderator to the Technology Club at Connelly School of the Holy Child.
According to a police news release, his employment has been terminated when the administration became aware of the criminal allegations against him.
Police said he was held on a $35,000 bond.
Detectives ask anyone who believes has been victimized by Gordon to call the Special Victims Investigations Division at 240.773.5400.
These brave girls are to be commended for their courage in coming forward about being sexually abused. Let’s hope that anyone who may have knowledge or may have been harmed by Justin Andrew Gordon, will find the courage to speak up and contact law enforcement no matter how long ago it happened.
Silence only hurts, and by speaking up there is a chance for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others.
Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, USA, 636-433-2511. snapjudy@gmail.com,
SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers and increasingly, victims who were assaulted in a wide range of institutional settings like summer camps, athletic programs, Boy Scouts, etc