Sacramento teacher arrested in child abuse probe accused of student sexual assault
A former Sacramento teacher, who was arrested last year on charges of possessing child sexual abuse material, is being accused of grooming and sexually assaulting one of his students on campus.
Mark Stephen Sirard, who worked for Sacramento City Unified School District for 25 years, was arrested in November 2024 following an investigation which found 188 images of child sexual abuse material and nearly 4,000 images categorized as either child erotica or “age difficult” photos in which it is hard to tell if the person depicted is an adult, according to criminal files obtained by The Sacramento Bee.
Now a former student is alleging that Sirard abused him while he was enrolled at Leonardo Da Vinci K-8 School from 2009-11, according to a lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court last month. The complaint alleges that Sirard groomed and sexually assaulted the anonymous plaintiff beginning when he was an 11-year-old student in the former teacher’s English language arts class.
The complaint says that Sirard began grooming the plaintiff to normalize sexual contact by inappropriately touching and caressing the child’s hair and back. Later, Sirard would go on to force the student to watch porn and engage in mutual masturbation in his classroom after school or during lunch and later forced the student to both give and receive oral sex, according to the lawsuit.
Attorneys for the plaintiff wrote that Sacramento City Unified School District “ignored and concealed the sexual abuse” perpetrated against students by Sirard, claiming he repeatedly sexually harassed and abused several students. They allege that school and district staff had previously received complaints about Sirard’s inappropriate behavior with students and that they failed to report allegations of sexual abuse to law enforcement or child protective services.
“Schools have a mandatory duty to make sure that students are safe — that the people coming into contact with them are taking appropriate actions,” said Simona Danesh, a lawyer representing the plaintiff.
Sirard’s inappropriate history stretches back as early as the 2000s. According to criminal court records, Sirard met his wife when she was a sophomore in his class at a now-defunct arts high school. In an interview with investigators, she claimed nothing sexual happened before she turned 18 but admitted later that they had kissed.
Danesh said that while it is important to educate your child about appropriate contact with adults, the insidious nature of being groomed by an adult and the abuse of power inherent to these interactions make it possible for adults to commit these acts, no matter how much a parent warns their child. She emphasized that the responsibility is on the school to put policies in place to ensure that students are protected from predatory adults on campus.
“Our client was just a small child who was coming in contact with his teacher,” Danesh said. “I don’t know how a parent is supposed to walk a young child through that ... but it’s upon the school to make sure that the policies to protect children are actually being implemented.”
District spokesperson Alexander Goldberg said that the district does not comment on ongoing litigation, but confirmed that Sirard is no longer an employee of the district.
Criminal investigation into child sexual abuse material possession
Law enforcement began investigating Sirard in January 2024 after he expressed sexual interest in children to an undercover police officer from the United Kingdom in a KIK chatroom focused on daddy/daughter sexual relationships. Under the username “trustandfaith99,” Sirard provided four “proof of life” photos to the undercover officer which were later confirmed during a search warrant to be taken in his classroom at Leonardo da Vinci.
UK authorities handed over information to U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force and Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes teams took over the investigation.
The photos helped identify Sirard’s public Instagram account. A member of the task force matched Sirard’s IP address with a child sexual abuse image, prompting search warrants for Sirard’s residence and classroom in May 2024. During an initial interview, Sirard admitted to posting from the account trustandfaith99.
Sacramento City Unified placed Sirard on administrative leave after being notified of the investigation by law enforcement. Shortly after being arrested in November, Sirard posted $50,000 bail.
Goldberg confirmed last year that Sirard has taught in the district since 1999.
“The news is deeply disturbing as our highest priority as a school district is to protect our students and staff from harm on our school sites,” school district officials said in a message sent to parents of Leonardo da Vinci School students after Sirard’s arrest. “As we continue to cooperate with law enforcement, we remain fully committed to taking every necessary step to protect and support our students.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2025 at 3:37 PM.
