Ryan, OK Reserve Officer Charged with Engaging in Sexual Communication with a Minor

Robert Gutierrez Jr. is charged with sending explicit texts to a 15 year old girl who had been his foster child several months before the alleged texts were sent.

Officials with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation say they opened this case after the girl's current foster parent reported the texts to Lawton police who then notified them.

Gutierrez turned himself in Dec. 20.

Now parents, school officials and Ryan police have a lot of unanswered questions.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, Ryan Public Schools Superintendent Larry Ninman says he was contacted by the Ryan Police Department about putting law enforcement on school grounds.

Gutierrez was assigned that job.

Gutierrez was in charge of patrolling the school hallways and gym during school hours for only three days.

"We were glad to have him because we felt it would be good for our students," Gutierrez says. "Unfortunately, there was an incident that took place away from campus. It has nothing to do with Ryan Public Schools. It had nothing to do with any Ryan children."

Ninman says they are taking this alleged incident very seriously.

"We've checked into it throughly so hopefully the parents will understand we still want to protect their kids," Ninman says. "We will look into some different procedures now, maybe to get someone here to help watch from time to time but under no circumstance, did anything happen here."

Ryan Chief of Police Jessie Aden says Gutierrez had been a reserve police officer for the force for almost a year.

"On behalf of the department, I'll apologize because if I had known anything or anything he had ever done like this, well, he wouldn't be working for me," Aden says.

However, parents like David Teater, a father of five students at Ryan Public Schools, are concerned Gutierrez worked so closely with the students.

"I wish they would have said something sooner versus waiting for all of us to kind of get upset about it and bring it to light," Teater says.

Teater adds, "He was here to protect them and then he goes, it didn't happen here but he's going off, doing that with other kids, what's to say, it could have been my kids or something."

Superintendent Ninman did send a letter home will all students on Friday informing parents of the situation.

OSBI officials say this incident is still under investigation.