San Jose police say teacher sexually assaulted minor on a middle school campus

Matthew Gonzalez formerly taught at Hoover and Willow Glen middle schools

SAN JOSE, Calif. — According to authorities, a former teacher was arrested Monday on suspicion of sexually assaulting a minor on the campus of a San Jose middle school where he worked more than five years ago.

Matthew Gonzalez, 36, was arrested on Monday, according to police. Gonzalez was a teacher at Herbert Hoover Middle School in San Jose at the time of the assault, according to authorities.

Gonzalez, according to police, no longer works for the school. They did not say when he left Hoover or whether he had continued to teach since then.

Gonzalez has also worked as a teaching assistant at the San Jose State University Child Development Center and previously taught at Willow Glen Middle School. Police did not make any specific allegations about his time working at either of those facilities.

According to authorities, the investigation began in mid-August with a report. Gonzalez was arrested on Monday after police obtained search and arrest warrants on suspicion of sending harmful materials to a minor and engaging in lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14.

Anyone with information about this or other cases involving children is asked to contact Detective Zanotto of the San Jose Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce at 3657@sanjoseca.gov or 408-900-6564.

This is the second sexual assault arrest on a Hoover teacher in as many years. Trae Devonte Owens, who taught at the school that year, was arrested last September after allegedly soliciting sexual photos from a student.