‘She cleaned them out’: Mother accused of stealing $35K from parents, teachers association

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) - The new school year is off to a rough start for a middle school in Arizona.

According to Scottsdale police, Nubia Gonzalez stole thousands of dollars from an association put together by parents and teachers at her child’s school.

Gonzalez is accused of stealing more than $35,000 from the Cocopah Association of Parents and Teachers, which raises money for school activities, field trips and other programs.

“I have a finance background and accounting background, and it blows my mind that there’s somebody who would do this knowing they were taking these types of funds away from children,” parent Rebecca Ryerson said.

Gonzalez was elected treasurer of Cocopah’s APT in April and has been a well-liked mom who frequently volunteered in her children’s classrooms at Cocopah Middle School.

But she reportedly wasted no time withdrawing all the funds after being given access to the association’s bank accounts at the end of June.

Investigators shared a photo of Gonzalez depositing stolen money into her personal account.

“I mean, it’s devastating. To think they would take away from the school and kids,” parent Tanya Roberts said.

Police say Gonzalez used fraudulent documents and a fake home address when she signed onto the bank accounts, and when officers went to question her, she disappeared, shutting down her phones and social media accounts.

“It was a false address she gave, not only to the police department, (Scottsdale Unified School District), everyone. So, we do not know where they were living at this point,” Scottsdale Police Sgt. Allison Sempsis said. “That was her sole intent; she became treasurer in April and as soon as she got access to bank accounts, she cleaned them out.”

Parents with children at Cocopah Middle School are worried about how they’ll replace all the money that was stolen.

They hope families will still see the importance of investing in their children’s education.

“I want the people to feel like the community that we built is just as strong as it was 30 days ago before we knew about this event,” Ryerson said. “I hope they’ll see our community in Cocopah and get behind our fall fundraiser.”

The Scottsdale Unified School District released the following statement:

“We are disappointed to learn about the alleged theft involving the treasurer of the Cocopah Middle School APT. It is disheartening to think that someone would take advantage of the hard work and dedication of our parent groups. Our APTs, PTOs, and Booster Clubs operate as separate non-profit organizations, and we greatly appreciate their tireless efforts to support our students, staff, and schools.

The core purpose of these groups is to enhance the educational experience for our students, and we are grateful for their unwavering commitment. We want to assure our community that this incident does not reflect the values and integrity of our many volunteers and community partners.

We hope that this unfortunate situation will not deter our engaged community from continuing to serve and give in support of their children.”

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