Former Branham employee Heriberto “Eddie” Plascencia was arrested last week for allegedly sending harmful materials and inappropriate messages to at least two juvenile female students, according to the San Jose Police Department. He was booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail. 

Plascencia was hired in the middle of the 2024-2025 school year as a one-to-one classroom aide for a special education student. He also coached the JV boys basketball team and track and field team in his first year, then the varsity girls basketball team during this past season. 

The 31-year-old is the head coach of Jr Ballers, a basketball training program, and formerly coached at KIPP San Jose Collegiate.

After investigating him for misconduct in 2025, the Campbell Union High School District removed Plascencia from Branham in early December and reassigned him to Westmont High School as an aide. Board policy 4216 says classified employees can receive permanent status after six months or 130 days of employment. Plascencia also coached track and field at Leigh this year.

“Once the investigation report is done, there are certain decisions that principals make site-based, always with the consult of HR,” Principal Beth Silbergeld said. “There are other [decisions] that HR or the district might make for us, instead of just local site control.”

Although the school and district were aware of misconduct last year, new details required an escalation.

“New information was shared with me by a student on May 15 that prompted me to call the police and report the information that I had to the school district,” Silbergeld said.

In response, police arrested Plascencia on May 21 after investigating.

Silbergeld sent a schoolwide message prior to today’s press release.

“I wanted to make sure that students, staff and families had an alert, so that if it was going to be in the news, that they had context for it,” Silbergeld said. “Even though I can only share limited context, that was important to me to respond to previous requests by our community.”

Videos circulated online last week claiming to depict Plascencia getting assaulted by minors.