West L.A. School Counselor Accused of Sexual Abuse: Police Seek Additional Victims

High School Counselor Faces Sexual Abuse Charges

Julie Tichon, a 37-year-old school coun­selor from West Los Ange­les, has been accused of sex­u­al­ly abus­ing a 16-year-old boy. The Los Ange­les Police Depart­ment reports that Tichon com­mit­ted a “series of sex­u­al assaults” against the teen in Feb­ru­ary and March of this year.

Criminal Charges and Potential Consequences

Tichon is fac­ing seri­ous crim­i­nal charges, including:

• Three counts of sex­u­al inter­course with a minor
• One count of oral cop­u­la­tion with a per­son under the age of 18

If con­vict­ed on all charges, Tichon could be sen­tenced to up to five years in prison. Her next court appear­ance is sched­uled for Novem­ber 1.

Abuse of Trust and Authority

Detec­tive Russ Hess of the LAPD stat­ed, “The sus­pect used her posi­tion of respon­si­bil­i­ty to gain these vic­tims’ trust, then began inap­pro­pri­ate sex­u­al rela­tion­ships with them. Rather than advis­ing them, she was abus­ing them.”

Investigation Ongoing: Search for Additional Victims

Police believe there may be more vic­tims and are active­ly seek­ing infor­ma­tion from the pub­lic. The dis­cov­ery of addi­tion­al vic­tims “could poten­tial­ly add to the crim­i­nal case,” accord­ing to the LAPD.

School Awareness and Previous Incidents

Tichon was employed as a school coun­selor at YULA Los Ange­les, which describes itself as a “Mod­ern Ortho­dox Yeshi­va High School.” A report from the Los Ange­les Times sug­gests that the school is aware of at least one oth­er poten­tial victim.

Importance of Reporting Abuse

This case high­lights the crit­i­cal impor­tance of report­ing sus­pect­ed abuse, espe­cial­ly in edu­ca­tion­al set­tings where adults hold posi­tions of trust and author­i­ty over minors. Any­one with infor­ma­tion about this case or poten­tial addi­tion­al vic­tims is urged to con­tact the Los Ange­les Police Department.