Via Flickr user amboo who?
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will attempt to reverse a horrible trend during the 2017 Legislature.
According to a San Antonio Express-News report, 50-year-old Marcelo Gomez, a so-called freelance soccer instructor, allegedly whipped out his smart phone during practice with at least three female athletes and did something really dumb and gross: showed naked photos of himself to a 17-year-old girl and then asked the girl if she wanted to touch him down there.
It gets worse. The next day, writes the E-N, Gomez did it again.
A Bexar County records search shows that the offenses took place on October 5 and October 6. Gomez has been charged with displaying harmful material to a minor, a class A misdemeanor, and an arraignment has been set for December 7.
On Monday, on the first day that bills can be filed in advance of the 2017 Texas Legislature, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick released his top ten legislative priorities for the 85th regular session, which is scheduled to launch on January 10. Along with standbys such as budget proposals and property-tax reform, inappropriate teacher-student relationships landed on the list.
“With the rapid increase in the number of inappropriate teacher-student relationships, legislation is needed to strengthen the reporting and training requirements, and establish appropriate penalties,” writes Patrick. “Priority must be given to protecting our students at every level of the school system.”
And San Antonio has seen plenty of examples of improper teacher-student relationships, which recently hit an eight-year high in the state.
In September 2014, ex-Memorial High School teacher Marcus Revilla was sentenced to 17 years of federal jail time after he admitted to producing child pornography. Revilla had produced cell phone images of himself having intercourse with a 15-year-old student that he had apparently impregnated.
Maria Alexandra Gonzalez, who had worked at Madison and Winston Churchill high schools, was caught straddling a 15-year-old and former student inside of a car. In October 2015, she received five years of deferred adjudication after accepting a plea deal.
In February, Raymond Casillas, a now former teacher at Julius Matthey Middle School, received an eight-year prison sentence for molesting a 13-year-old student in 2011. The girl told Child Safe personnel that Casillas invited her to his classroom during lunch, bolted the door and forced her to perform sexual acts on him.
The sad list goes on and on.
