SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 26, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A longtime elementary school teacher in Salt Lake City has been charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
The first-degree felony was filed against suspect Jared Tichy, 44, most recently a faculty member at Edison Elementary School.
Tichy is accused of inappropriately touching a student when she was in his second-grade class. The student, now 13, told Salt Lake City police she would play “games at the table with Tichy, and she would earn special points ‘for no reason,’ called Dojo points. The points were used to exchange for different types of gifts that Tichy bought, court documents say.
The girl told investigators Tichy would sit her on his lap and stroke her, sometimes gently and sometimes so aggressively that it hurt, in areas including her breasts, thighs and stomach, charging documents say.
The girl said “she originally kept quiet because she ‘didn’t know it was bad’ and she didn’t want to annoy anybody or make anybody feel that she was ‘being overdramatic,'” Tichy’s charging documents say.
During an interview with an SLCPD detective, Tichy confirmed he was an elementary school teacher, and had been teaching for 19 years.
“Tichy stated that he taught second grade at Edison Elementary from 2015-2017 and 2019-2022. Tichy stated that he does a ‘Class Dojo,’ which is a rewards system he uses in his classroom.”
The Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill issued a statement on the case:
“Our office will always aggressively prosecute those who victimize our children, especially those who hold a position of special trust in relation to the child, like a teacher. We applaud the young survivor that made the decision to speak up and report this allegation. It is difficult for anyone to have the courage to take this step, especially a child,” Gill said.
“We’d like to thank the Salt Lake City Police Department for gathering the supportive evidence to screen and file charges for this alleged crime.”
