Tulsa World: Langston professor, school teacher arrested in sex abuse case

MAKE US YOUR HOMEPAGE | Saturday, November 21, 2009 | WIRELESS

Home > News > Article

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Langston professor, school teacher arrested in sex abuse case

By McClatchy Newspapers
Published: 9/30/2008 5:13 PM
Last Modified: 9/30/2008 5:13 PM

EDMOND -- A Langston professor and a Jones Public Schools employee have been arrested in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of an Edmond teenage girl.

Reza Ross Pourdavood, 53, and Leah Pourdavood, 40, both of Edmond, were arrested Thursday by Edmond Police, according to a police report. Reza Pourdavood was arrested on seven complaints of child sexual abuse. Leah Pourdavood was arrested on one complaint of enabling child abuse.

Both are being held on $70,000 bond each and both were taken to the Oklahoma County Jail. Charges have not been accepted on either Reza Pourdavood or Leah Pourdavood, according to the Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office on Monday.

Langston spokeswoman Ashley Gibson said Reza Pourdavood was fully employed by the university, which is investigating the allegations.

Jones Public Schools Superintendent Mike Steele confirmed that Leah Pourdavood is a pre-kindergarten teacher at Jones Elementary.

''We are currently doing an investigation and she will not be in the classroom until and unless this matter is resolved," Steele said.

A phone call made Monday morning to the Pourdavoods' Edmond home was not immediately returned. In the U.S. legal system, individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

According to the police report, the victim went to her high school counselor and asked questions about how to deal with people "getting in her face and yelling."

The counselor told the victim about how there are different types of

abuse and that she could help if the victim would tell her what the problem was. According to the police report, the victim told the counselor the abuse was "something small but it's been a lot worse in the past."

The Department of Human Services has been notified about the abuse, police said. By McClatchy Newspapers

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Reader Comments

Show: Most Recent Comment First

Add your comment

11 comments have been made on this story so far. Tell us what you think below!

Reporting Comments

If you see a comment that violates our terms and conditions, please help us by clicking the "Report this Comment" link next to a comment. That will alert the web staff to review the comment. Thank you. -- Web Editor Jason Collington

	Report Comment The Sarge, (10/1/2008 11:47:51 AM) Ir is nice you are saying this about a professor at a black college but when a Tulsa doctor was accused of the same thing only the alleged victim was young you did not mention at the time the doctor was arrested you did not mention that charges were yet to be filed. The media made sound like the doctor had already been convicted and ruined the doctors career.
	Report Comment vj, Tulsa (10/1/2008 1:59:49 PM) Sarge, Please notice who the story was written by. It's printed in the TW, but not written by them.
	Report Comment OhCountryBaby, Tulsa (10/1/2008 2:02:59 PM) "black college" I know white people that go there too. This is 2008, Sarge.
	Report Comment C.R. Delough, Tulsa (10/1/2008 2:38:11 PM) FTA: In the U.S. legal system, individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
	Report Comment THE REF, Broken Arrow (10/1/2008 3:46:48 PM) The Sarge, you are "out of touch" there buddy
	Report Comment okie ridgerunner, small town (10/1/2008 11:39:14 PM) Swami1- - they are Republicans. forget the bail.
	Report Comment Michael888888, (10/2/2008 12:36:03 AM) It's a bunch of B.S. He was my professor and one of the nicest guy's I have ever met. I think the girl is trying to get attention. The guy used to go out of his way to help me out with my class. Great teacher! I guess this is what happens when you go out of your way to help people out. He is just a great teacher and I hope the charges will drop.!!!!!!!!
	Report Comment concernedpapa, Kiefer (10/2/2008 5:32:56 AM) Swami121658 Your post is a very poor attempt at humor, but on the good side it does prove your last 8 words. Michael Good post I hope your former teacher realizes someone he influenced just stood up for him.
	Report Comment Ramirez, Tulsa (10/2/2008 10:51:52 AM) Don't know what to believe anymore?
	Report Comment sjaryan, Tulsa (10/2/2008 11:15:31 AM) I read this article twice and didn't see anything about Sexual Abuse? Yelling in someone's face is not sexual abuse. Verbal abuse can take many forms and I don't think we are getting all the facts here. People can imply or suggest that someone else said something inappropriate but without witnesses it makes it hard to substantiate. Similar to verbal slander, very difficult to prove. The problem with this story is that all the facts are not supplied. Yet two professional people are being subjected to 'heresay'. Their lives could be damaged beyond repair and that is truly sad. If they have done something wrong then deserve whatever happens but if they are not there is not anyway to undo the damage to their careers. Poor reporting if you want to know the truth. FYI Sarge is a frequent CL poster and he/she LOVES to stir up verbal controversy so comments from him/her are nothing to be concerned about.
	Report Comment vj, Tulsa (10/2/2008 11:49:29 AM) No offense here Michael888888 (and I'm certainly not pointing fingers), but the students were saying the same thing about Kastner (the teacher from Webster that killed his wife) right after his arrest. Again, I'm all for hearing the evidence, but like Ramirez pointed out...we don't know who to believe anymore.

Add Your Comment
In order to post a comment on this article, you must sign in to Tulsaworld.com. If you do not have a site account, you can create an account for free.