An eighth-grade teacher who showed up at school Monday at Castaic Middle School hasn’t been seen since, prompting school district administrators to file a missing person’s report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Reuben Sherr, newly hired by the Castaic Union School District, came to the campus of the middle school Monday and spent hours preparing his room for the new school year.
And that was the last time anyone has seen or heard from him, according to school officials.
“We’ve heard nothing,” Charmin Ortega, executive assistant to Superintendent Steve Doyle, said Friday. “Any other information is going to have to come from the (Santa Clarita Valley) Sheriff’s Station.”
Ortega confirmed an email was sent by Doyle Thursday to school families informing them of the disappearance.
The email reads in part: “As we embark on a new school year, I apologize that I must share unfortunate news with you.”
The email continues to report: “Mr. Reuben Sherr… has been reported as a missing person.”
“He did not attend the all-staff welcome back breakfast or teachers’ professional development held on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we grew deeply concerned and tried to reach him.”
Doyle concludes his email to parents noting: “It is a worrisome situation, indeed, and I hope that you will join me in wishing the best for Mr. Sherr.”
District and school administrators are in the process of “securing a long-term substitute teacher” in light of the disappearance.
Deputies searching for Sherr had little to go on, Lt. Leo Bauer said Friday.
“We have no information as to why he’s missing,” he said. “None of the contact numbers he provided (to school officials) have worked out. The numbers have turned out to be bad locations or so old the people haven’t seen or heard from him in years.”
Sherr worked as a substitute teacher in the Bay Area for 2014 and 2015. He most recently lived in the community of Mountain View, north of San Francisco.
“He worked in the Bay Area and came down here to work,” Bauer said. “It’s a very unusual case.”
The missing persons report landed on the desk of Sgt. Sandra Nava of the Missing Persons section of LASD’s Homicide Bureau late Friday afternoon.
“We just got that case in our office this minute,” she said at 4 p.m. “We are now reviewing it.”
By the end of Friday, day two of the 2018-19 school year, administrators at the Castaic Union School District had still received no new information about the missing teacher, Ortega said.
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