An Orange County teacher who allegedly fathered a child with a teenage student decades ago has been placed on administrative leave as police investigate allegations of sexual abuse against him, authorities said.
Reiko Wright, a former student at Loara High School, took to social media on Monday to share her allegations against Steve Graves — who she said abused and impregnated her in the late 1980s.
Steve Graves’ photo on the Lexington Junior High School website. The school is part of the Anaheim Union High School District.
(Lexington Junior High School / Anaheim Union High School District)
Another of Graves’ former students, Helen Lowney, also wrote on social media that she was sexually abused in 1987, when she was 16. Graves, now 61, would have been in his mid-20s at the time.
Graves did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday evening. A call to a number listed for him also was not returned.
Anaheim police spokesperson Sgt. Matt Sutter said Wright and Lowney were friends at Loara High at the time of the alleged abuse. Both intend to pursue legal action against Graves if possible, he said.
“While you saw him as the beacon of guidance and faith, I knew him as the predator who stole my innocence, impregnated me as a teenager, and left scars that run deeper than time,” Wright wrote on Instagram.
Wright alleged that Graves groomed her while she was a student at Loara High and used his position as a teacher and church leader in the community to grow closer to her.
Wright later transferred to Gilbert High School in Anaheim, where she endured shaming from her classmates as she completed her senior year while pregnant.
“He was the teacher who lingered at your child’s desk a moment too long, the church leader who offered whispered condolences cloaked in concern,” she wrote.
Graves, most recently the band director at Lexington Junior High School, was placed on administrative leave by the Anaheim Union High School District on Aug. 29. The district said it is taking steps to fire him and notified Lexington families of the investigation on Wednesday, according to a statement.
The district’s statement also said that the allegations had “revealed that paternity tests concluded that Graves had fathered a child with one of the students.”
“Keeping our students safe is a high priority on all of our campuses,” the district said. “The sexual misconduct revealed in the social media posts is reprehensible. It violates the district’s core values and fails to meet the high expectations we have for professional behavior by our staff.”
Graves also previously taught at Ball Junior High School.
No other victims have come forward since detectives began investigating, Sutter said.
“We are working with [the] D.A.’s office to see if we can file any charges,” he said. “At the same time, we are giving time to see if witnesses come forward or additional victims.”
Graves taught music in the Anaheim Union High School District for over 20 years and worked as the band director at Lexington Junior High for more than a decade, according to a district webpage. He has received three “Teacher of the Year” awards from the district, the webpage said, as well as multiple honorary service awards from the Parent Teacher Assn.
Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact Anaheim police at (714) 765-1623 or Orange County Crime Stoppers (855) TIP-OCCS.