Despite the scandal regarding Margaret De Barraicua, a Sacramento State student interning at McClatchy High School, the teacher education program assures that the incident will not hurt its image.

Thirty-year-old De Barraicua was accused of having sex with a 16-year-old male student and faces statutory rape felony charges.

Since her internship at McClatchy High began in September, De Barracuia taught a language arts class, that the student attended, according to The Sacramento Bee. De Barraicua was arrested Feb. 26 and accused of having sex four times with the student from Sept.1 to Feb. 19.

A more recent Sacramento Bee report said, De Barraicua was arraigned on four felony charges in the Sacramento Superior Court. De Barracuia could be sentenced to probation to up to three years in prison if convicted.

Ric Brown, the vice president of academic affairs at Sac State, said this is an “unfortunate, isolated incident” that was the result of “a poor decision by an individual.”

Sac State has had over 300 interns in the past five years and has about 600 student teachers each year.

Interns are full-time employees of their school districts and student teachers are unpaid students placed in schools.

This is the first time that there has ever been this kind of a problem, Brown said.

David Jelinek, associate professor of teacher education at Sac State, said it is an unfortunate situation that does not reflect on Sac State’s program.

“The feedback we have is that the program has been having a positive effect,” Jelinek said.

He also said that ethics is part of every class and masters programs require ethics courses.

Sac State will wait to see the outcome before deciding whether to take any disciplinary action against De Barraicua.

Prospective interns must pass two fingerprint checks, one with the district and one with Sac State, in addition to reference checks before being employed by the Sacramento City Unified School District, said Frank Meder, the coordinator of new teacher support for the district, which includes McClatchy High School.

“I surely wouldn’t think the actions of one, if they turn out to be true, would affect the rest of the teachers in the district,” Meder said.

The internship program with Sac State is in its eighth year. Interns are selected by a joint committee of both Sac State and district staff.

There have never been any problems of this sort in the district before.De Barraicua has been placed on administrative leave and by law cannot be in the intern program or attend Sac State internship classes.

Julie Bledsoe, a graduate student in the Counselor Education Department, said that this is bad for Sac State’s program because the university will be associated with this incident in the news and that it’s unfortunate that De Barraicua goes to Sac State for that reason.

Janelle Dent, also a graduate student in the Counselor Education Department, hopes people will see this as an isolated incident and not as a reflection on Sac State’s program.

Dent said she feels bad for the student because the teacher-student relationship is so powerful and De Barraicua abused it. She called this abuse “wrong and nasty.”

Both Bledsoe and Dent said that the whole program at Sac State stresses ethical behavior.

Bledsoe said there is “a strong focus on ethics and morals. We’re really well educated on that.”