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STAR-ADVERTISER STAFF / 2006
The main building is shown at Sacred Hearts Academy.
A 55-year-old, male teacher who was fired from all-girls Sacred Hearts Academy in Kaimuki has been arrested on suspicion of two counts of fourth-degree sex assault and three counts of third-degree sex assault, police said.
Mario DiLello, who taught social studies at the Catholic school, was arrested at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday by Honolulu police at his Moiliili condominium on Church Lane.
DiLello could not be reached for comment. Betty White, the head of Sacred Hearts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment today.
In a letter sent earlier this month to alumnae, White wrote that an unidentified teacher had been fired after two high school students reported “inappropriate behavior.”
“We immediately investigated and dismissed the teacher on the same day the incidents were reported,” White wrote in the letter. “We notified authorities, and the parents filed a police report. This is now a police matter, and we are fully cooperating with the investigation. We acted quickly and deliberately in responding to our students, who were very courageous in reporting the inappropriate behavior of this teacher.”
In 2013 the school fired a longtime male teacher, William Plourde, for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old student. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison.
DiLello had often been quoted in the Sacred Hearts Academy student newspaper on various topics.
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