Carlos D. Araiza of Pacifica was arrested last week on one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. The man, who is a Spanish teacher at Terra Nova High School was indicted by a federal grand jury on April 2 and arrested on April 3. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that the Pacifica high school teacher pleaded not guilty on Monday when he was arraigned.

Araiza's case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with assistance from the Pacifica Police Department and the child exploitation and obscenity section of the U.S. Department of Justice's criminal division. He is due to return to U.S. District Court in Oakland on Thursday morning for a detention hearing before Magistrate Judge Wayne Brazil.

He has been teaching Spanish for Terra Nova High School for the past eight years. Federal prosecutors say that he was accused of receiving child pornography in January 2005, and the possession count dates to March 2005. If he will be found guilty he would face up to 30 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines.

Jefferson Union High district Superintendent Michael Crilly said: "If the charges are true, this is absolutely disgraceful. He's a teacher who pledges himself to the welfare of youth and to be engaged in this kind of behavior is absolutely unacceptable — intolerable." Moreover, he added that "I hope to God this has no connection with the school, but I assume if it did, then we'd know about it. (Arraiza) has been a decent teacher in the district and this is rather shocking." Apparently, the school didn't learn about the teacher's case until Wednesday, despite noticing that Araiza hadn't arrived to school for the past week.