North Bay PE teacher charged with 21 felony sex crimes against female student

AMERICAN CANYON, Calif. (KGO) -- A Physical Education teacher from American Canyon High School is behind bars, accused of multiple sex crimes against a female student. The principal is on leave due to the current investigation.

Wednesday evening, the school district held a meeting to inform and update parents on the case.

Brad Rowell has been charged with multiple felony sex crimes against a female student.

Parents ABC7 News spoke with at this districtwide community meeting Wednesday night learned that Rowell has been charged with 21 felonies.

"Our son said that he was actually a really nice guy and a lot harder on the guys - the boys - and had a very good relationships with a lot of the girls and was very like friendly and buddy buddy with them," said Jordanna Howard who is a parent in the district.

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"My son - when this initially happened I said, 'what's the deal?' He's like 'I don't know he seemed cool, he seemed like a nice guy, but he was very friendly with the female students,'" said another parent Jeffrey Fredeen.

Court documents say the alleged crimes began sometime last summer and continued until last week. The victim is said to be 15 and 16 during all of this. The Napa County Sheriff says Rowell was first arrested on April 9 after the school resource officer looked into the matter.

"He came across some very disturbing evidence where it pushed it past the rumor realm and pushed it in the evidence realm, and then the decision was made to immediately arrest him," says Napa County Sheriff Oscar Ortiz.

Rowell was bailed out and then arrested again on April 12 when authorities say more evidence surfaced. He is currently still in jail.

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Superintendent of the Napa Valley Unified School District Rosanna Mucetti spoke at this meeting. She says the alleged sex acts are believed to have occurred on the American Canyon High School campus in the weight room, in a vehicle, and in a janitorial closet. She addressed her concerns Wednesday night.

"It's extremely concerning. It's absolutely unacceptable to us so we are going to look at our systems," said Mucetti. "We are going to investigate the matter comprehensively and thoroughly."

The complaint also says that Rowell was in possession of material that showed a minor engaging in sexual conduct. Parents said the details in this case are painful to hear.

"Heartbroken 'cause this is such a tight-knit community," said parent Jordan Donaldson. "We have such great parents and students that this should not have happened."

Now law enforcement is trying to determine if there are any more victims.

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