High School Staff Busted for Sending Obscene Material to Student
Photo: All photos courtesy of Westlake High School
Written By: Robert L. McCullough
Ventura County, Ca. December 10, 2022 –In a case that may well prove to become another black mark in the annals of public education, a Westlake High School staff member has been arrested and charged with Sending Harmful Matter to a Minor and Possession of a Controlled Substance.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Greg Webb, on the morning of December 1, 2022 the VCSD Thousand Oaks School Resource Officers attached to the Thousand Oaks Intelligence Led Policing team were contacted by a Westlake High School Administrator who reported “inappropriate messages sent to a student.” Deputies quickly made contact with the student female victim and determined that the messages in question were “more than inappropriate” and included “numerous illicit images” sent to her.
The perpetrator of the contact with the underage female was promptly identified as 33-year- old Thousand Oaks resident Thomas Ballas, an employee of the Conejo Valley Unified School District working in the capacity of “Technical Specialist in the Theater Department” at Westlake High School.
The following day, Deputies attached to the VCSD Directed Enforcement Unit and to the Thousand Oaks Sexual Assault Unit showed up at Ballas’s residence with search warrant in hand. During the search, deputies and detectives discovered “additional information” that supported the allegations proffered by the young female victim, as well as an undisclosed amount of a controlled substance.
Ballas was taken into custody at his residence and summarily transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on the aforementioned charges.
