(KRON) – A former Benicia school teacher was charged with seven counts of child molestation for sexually abusing two girls at Robert Semple Elementary School. On April 9, the victim’s parents filed a lawsuit against the Benicia Unified School District for allowing the hire.
The student’s name is withheld in the suit, which was filed in Solano County Superior Court on April 9. It alleges that 42-year-old Matthew Joseph Shelton, a former fifth-grade teacher at Robert Semple, inappropriately touched and abused her during the 2022-23 school year.
The victim in the lawsuit alleges she was in the fifth grade when the abuse occurred at Robert Semple in the fall semester of 2022. The alleged abuse occurred at Shelton’s classroom during an after-school program, among other locations, the suit claims.
According to the suit, Semple also committed similar acts in 2018, where the suit charged Shelton in 2018 with inappropriately touching and abusing a minor under 14 years old in Alameda County, the complaint said.
Benicia and Alameda are not the first school districts where Shelton has been accused of sexually abusing students. After a six-day trial in 2008, a jury acquitted Shelton of six counts of child molestation, the Napa Valley Register reported.
Salary records show Shelton was a trusted member of the BUSD teaching staff for years before facing the accusations.
Shelton has worked at Robert Semple since 2015. Salary records also indicate that he worked as a substitute teacher for the district prior to that. A Benicia school district official said that as of the 2023-24 school year, Shelton no longer worked for the district.
Hamza Fahmy
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