Ex-Pasadena teacher accused of furnishing alcohol to students

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SOUTH PASADENA — Police booked and released a former Blair High School teacher Thursday on suspicion of inviting current and former students to his home to drink alcohol, authorities said.
David Lyman, 66, was booked on suspicion of furnishing alcohol to minors and released on his own recognizance, South Pasadena Police Department officials said in a written statement.
He retired from his position as a special education teacher at the Pasadena Unified School District high school Feb. 1 in the midst of an internal internal district investigation, PUSD officials said.
“The Pasadena Unified School District contacted SPPD last month after their internal investigation revealed current and former Blair students were visiting Lyman’s South Pasadena home in the 1700 block of Oxley Street, where Lyman was furnishing alcohol to them and allowing them to view pornography on his computer,” according to the police statement.
After interviewing students and presenting the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for review, an arrest warrant was issued for Lyman on a misdemeanor charge of furnishing alcohol to a minor, police said.
According to the statement, “The D.A. determined that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a charge related to the pornography.”
Lyman said he received a call from a South Pasadena police sergeant asking him to come to the station to be booked and he immediately complied.
He declined to discuss the specifics of the allegations, but said he does not dispute them.
“They’re accurate,” he said of the charges of furnishing alcohol to minors. “I know that I made a mistake in judgement, so these are the consequences.”
“I did retire, given all this stuff,” he added. “I will go to court and deal with what the judge has to say.”
PUSD spokeswoman Binti Harvey called the suspected wrongdoing a “serious allegation.”
We’re concerned that any minor would have the opportunity to be served alcohol by an adult, especially by a teacher,” she said.
The district placed Lyman on leave and launched an investigation as soon as officials were notified of a problem in January, Harvey said. When apparent inappropriate behavior was found, the police were immediately notified.
He had been teaching at Blair High School since 1983, she added.
According to sheriff’s booking records, Lyman was due for arraignment April 25 in Alhambra Superior Court.
PHOTO of David Lyman courtesy of the South Pasadena Police Department
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