Former school aide convicted

A man who worked with Hmong students at Oroville’s Poplar Avenue Elementary School was convicted May 13 on nine counts of child molestation, according to a press release from the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.

Youlee Lee Vang, 55, helped students for whom English was a second language from 2000 to 2010. In 2011, a former student reported Vang (pictured), had molested her in a classroom over a two-year period. A Sheriff’s Office investigation found three other Poplar students who also reported molestation by Vang on the school grounds between 2005 and 2009. One of the molestations occurred at a victim’s home. Vang left the school in 2010 and moved to Alaska.

A sheriff’s detective went to Alaska in 2013 and interviewed Vang, who was subsequently arrested and returned to Butte County. Vang faces up to 24 years in state prison; he’s set for sentencing on Aug. 13.