SAN JOSE — The Santa Clara County Office of Education has hired an independent investigator to look into Walden West, the environmental education camp whose former night manager faces child pornography and molestation charges.
Alexander Sperry of the Van Dermyden Maddux Law Corp. of Sacramento is investigating issues related to the popular residential camp. The county office of education also has assigned an interim administrator, Christian Patz, to replace Director Anita Parsons, who was placed on leave.
Camp supervisor Edgar Covarrubias-Padilla, 27, was arrested May 7 by Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies, who were alerted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of suspicions that he was file-sharing child pornography. He was arraigned this week and faces an additional molestation charge.
Parents throughout the county have been dismayed by the response of school districts and the county office of education, which had provided scant information about the activities of Covarrubias-Padilla and operation of the camp. The office has not returned recent phone calls from this newspaper. It has posted an updated statement on its Web page, www.sccoe.org.
Superintendent Jon Gundry mentioned the hiring of the investigator to leaders of districts and schools that have sent children to the camp, which hosts 15,000 children annually. School leaders have pressed the county office of education to be more forthcoming.
In an email sent Friday to parents, the Sunnyvale School District insisted, “we are confident that the issues are being addressed quickly, appropriately and thoroughly.”
Those assurances are only further angering parents. “I feel like they’re talking down to me, that we’re just going to have to get over it,” said Lisa Marie Wong, whose daughter attended Walden West in February with her class from Lakewood Elementary in Sunnyvale. “I think they are trying to smooth it over.”
The Sunnyvale district’s message from spokeswoman Alia Wilson said that the camp has been a well-run, safe and high-quality program. “It is so concerning that one employee, who passed all screenings, can so severely damage the reputation of the program. We do think Walden West will emerge from this better and safer as a result; however, it will take time for trust to be restored.”
However, the county office of education has not released the dates and locations of the assignments of Covarrubias-Padilla, who volunteered and substituted in various capacities for several years in addition to working as night manager at the Cupertino campus for two years.
Instead, communications have focused on improved protocols. The county office of education has hired additional security at both Walden West campuses — in Saratoga and Cupertino — and retrained the staff on safety protocols. It has increased overnight staffing, implemented a buddy system, and enforced the “Rule of 3” requiring that when a student is with a staff member, at least one other person is present.
