A former Palo Alto High School biology teacher has been sentenced to two years, eight months in prison for assaulting a 15-year-old student in his classroom in June 2016. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Vincent Chiarello also ordered Ronnie Farrell to do three years of parole upon release from state prison and to register as a sex offender for life.
Farrell faced nine felony charges, including six counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a minor and three counts of sexual battery, resulting from two separate assaults on the victim.
In January, Farrell, 47, pleaded no contest to four counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child age 14 or 15 and one count of sexual battery. He also resigned as a teacher in the Palo Alto Unified School District that month.
The plea meant that Farrell could have been sentenced to a minimum of probation and a maximum of five years in state prison.
According to court documents, the victim told police she respected Farrell and “placed a great deal of trust in him.” She said he helped her during the school year when she felt nervous and out of place.
Things changed, however, on June 3, the day after the 2015-16 school year ended.
The student went to campus to pick up an art project and stopped by Farrell’s classroom.
“Defendant surprised (the victim) by telling her how ‘scary’ he could become and that he would prove it to her,” according to court documents. “Defendant than abruptly grabbed her, pulled her by her arms and hugged her for 10 to 15 seconds.”
The student returned to campus on June 7 after Farrell messaged her on Facebook and asked her to come to his classroom.
In the classroom, the teacher placed his hands under the student’s clothes and touched her breasts. He also massaged her leg and placed her hands on his groin, though she said several times “No!” and “No, I will not do that.”
The student told her family members about the sexual assault a week later and the incident was reported to police June 13.
Palo Alto police arranged a pretext phone call between the student and Farrell on June 14. During that call, Farrell talked about how hard he tried to resist her throughout the school year and apologized. He also asked her to forgive him and not tell anyone about what happened.
“When (the victim) explained to him that she was not sure whether she could forgive him, Defendant responded by telling her, ‘I will quit my job, it will end my life, think of the person that I was the entire year, not the stupid person at the end.’”
He arranged to meet the student June 15 on campus and police detectives arrested him there without incident.
