Counselor admits to sex with student, 16

A Daly City high school counselor was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old student she met at summer church camp, according to prosecutors who said the woman had naked photos of the girl on her cell phone.

Melody Ybona Gawliu, 24, pleaded no contest to one count of oral copulation with a minor in return for no more than a year in jail. She will not have to register as a sex offender.

Gawliu worked as a teacher’s aide at El Camino High School in South San Francisco when, between Sept. 1, 2007 and Jan. 25, she engaged in a romantic relationship with a teen student she met that summer while serving as a counselor, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Teachers reported the situation to Child Protective Services after becoming suspicious of Gawliu after she brought balloons to school for the girl’s 17th birthday and Daly City police reported finding nude photos of the girl on Gawliu’s phone as well as a text message telling the girl to say to authorities nothing happened between them.

Gawliu was initially charged with two counts of digital penetration with a person under age 18, attempting to dissuade a witness and felonious possession of sexual images of a person under age 18.

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.