'Clovis Teacher Arrested on Sex Charges' (video)

Clovis Teacher Arrested on Sex Charges
Reported by: Steve McCarron
Updated: 1/30 6:50 pm



An elementary school teacher in Clovis is accused of molesting a child in his own classroom.

Neng Yang, 43, was arrested on Friday. He's a second grade teacher at Freedom Elementary School.

Yang faces almost 30 charges, including child molestation, continuous sexual abuse of a child and child pornography.

Yang made his first appearance in federal court on Monday afternoon, but he did not enter a plea.

Court documents obtained by CBS47 show the victim's family contacted Clovis Police late last week to report allegations of possible sexual abuse.

Federal investigators claim that on several occasions, Yang would keep the 7-year-old victim behind during lunch, recess, or physical education and force her to perform sexual acts on him inside his classroom while she was blindfolded, the court documents stated.

Investigators found several sexually-related images and videos of the victim on Yang's cell phone and two external hard drives, the court documents stated. Dozens more photos were found on Yang's school-issued computer, the court documents stated.

Police are trying to determine if there are any more victims.

"At this time, we've only confirmed one victim. We're asking anybody if they think they have a potential victim to contact the Clovis Police Department," said Calli Biaggi, Clovis Police Department.

Yang began working for the Clovis Unified School District in 1993. He worked at Fancher Creek Elementary School for 10 years before moving to Freedom Elementary in 2007, district administrators said.

Kelly Avants, the district's Director of Communications said, "We have 5,000 employees and we have heartbroken employees tonight, realizing that the trust they placed in an individual as well as the trust that their community places in them is under question and so we recognize that and will be working very hard to reaffirm and reassure our parents the trust that they have in us."

Yang was placed on paid administrative leave on Friday afternoon. A meeting for parents of all students at Freedom Elementary was held at the school on Monday evening.

"He's a good teacher when my daughter was in his class," said parent Wenhua Zhao after hearing Monday about Yang's arrest. She said her daughter had him as a teacher a couple of years ago.

Yang is being held without bail. His next court appearance is scheduled for later this week.

Click the related link to download the complaint filed. (Warning: Very Graphic)