School Counselor Who Had Sex With Student May Have Victimized Others: LAPD

LOS ANGELES, CA — Authorities are searching for more potential victims of a high school guidance counselor who is accused of sexually assaulting a boy at a Los Angeles high school, police said Tuesday.

Julie Tichon, 37, of LA, pleaded not guilty last week to three felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor more than three years her junior and one felony count of oral copulation of a person under 18, according to prosecutors.

Tichon is accused of engaging in sexual acts with a 16-year-old boy multiple times during February and March, prosecutors said. But the Los Angeles Police Department on Tuesday said investigators believe there may be other students who have yet to come forward who could potentially add to the case.

Tichon formerly worked as a guidance counselor at YULA High School in Pico-Robertson, but has since left the modern Orthodox Jewish all-boys school.

“The suspect used her position of responsibility to gain these victims’ trust, then began inappropriate sexual relationships with them,” Detective Russ Hess said in a statement. “Rather than advising them, she was abusing them.”

If convicted as charged, Tichon faces up to five years in state prison, according to prosecutors.

YULA High School in a letter to the school community in May revealed that "a female staff member had an inappropriate relationship of a sexual nature" with a male student, and separately learned of another allegation against the same staff member involving a second student. The school notified the LAPD about the allegations, the Jewish Journal reported.

Neither the letter nor the Jewish Journal report revealed the staffer's identity.

Tichon was the school's director of academic support, a role that saw her work with "students who need short or long-term academic support," according to an archived version of the school website.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact Hess at 213-473-0561 or 877-527-3247 during non-business hours. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers online or by calling 800-222-8477.