Former Alliance Middle School counselor charged with sharing inappropriate material with juvenile
ALLIANCE – A former Alliance Middle School counselor was arrested Wednesday, accused of a felony charge for what school officials have described as "sharing of inappropriate imagery."
Gelsaira Ortiz, 29, of Maple Heights, turned herself in at the Stark County Jail on Wednesday afternoon, according to the arrest report. Ortiz pleaded not guilty Friday during her arraignment in the courtroom of Stark County Common Pleas Judge Chryssa Hartnett, according to court records. The court released Ortiz on her own recognizance without a bail amount.
A Stark County grand jury on July 1 indicted Ortiz on the fifth-degree felony charge of disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile involving a 14-year-old student at Alliance Middle School sometime from Dec. 25 to May 20. A warrant was issued seeking Ortiz's arrest.
Court records don't indicate the type of material she is accused of sharing.
Alliance City Schools' message to parents
Alliance City Schools Superintendent Rob Gress informed families of students of Ortiz's arrest on Thursday in a message posted on the school district's website.
He wrote that Alliance Police on May 23 notified the school district of allegations of misconduct against Ortiz. She had on May 19 resigned effective June 7, citing an employment opportunity outside the district.
The school district said it placed her on administrative leave immediately on hearing from the police. Ortiz was not permitted to be in any school facilities, be on school property or communicate with school employees, students or families of students.
More: Alliance Middle School staff member accused of 'inappropriate' communication with students
Without then identifying her, the district on May 26 informed parents of the investigation of the alleged "sharing of inappropriate imagery and engaging in inappropriate communications with students."
In Gress' message Thursday where he identified Ortiz as the staffer put on leave, he wrote that Ortiz was no longer an employee of the district, apparently due to her resignation.
"As educators, we hold ourselves to the highest standard of conduct," he wrote. "Any time these standards are not met, we are deeply disappointed."
Posts removed
On Feb. 9, the district had tweeted with a picture of Ortiz that "Gelsaira Ortiz has been a member of the AMS counseling staff for the past few years!," according to a Google cache of the Twitter page. "This year, she works hard to meet the needs of all 8th graders at AMS! Thank you for all you do!" The district put up the same post on Facebook, which was still up as of early Wednesday.
By Thursday afternoon, the posts had been deleted or were inaccessible to the public.
According to what appears to be her LinkedIn profile, Ortiz was a counselor for Alliance City Schools since August 2019. She was a counseling intern at Walls Elementary School in Kent during the 2018 to 2019 school year. She graduated with a master's degree in education/school counseling from Kent State University in 2019 after getting a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Ashland University in 2015, her LinkedIn profile says.
The statute says, "No person, with knowledge of its character or content, shall recklessly do any of the following ... directly sell, deliver, furnith, disseminate, provide, exhibit, rent, or presento a juvenile, a group of juveniles, a law enforcement officer posing as a juvenile, or a group of law enforcement officers posing as juveniles any material or performance that is obscene or harmful to juveniles."
Violating this provision of the law is a fifth-degree felony if the juvenile from ages 13 to 17 is shown "obscene" material.
A message seeking comment was left with the Strongsville law office of Aaron A. Schwartz, who was listed as Ortiz's original attorney in the case.
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @rwangREP.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Former Alliance school counselor Gelsaira Ortiz facing felony charge
