A Religious School Teacher Was Charged over the Weekend with Sexual Battery on a Teenager — Hours after the Two Returned Home from a Trip to Disney World.
By Carol Marbin Miller and Jennifer Lebovich
Miami Herald
May 27, 2009
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/1066955.html
When police wanted to question a teacher accused of having an affair with an eighth-grader at a private religious school, she was out of town — vacationing at Disney World with the student.
Upon her return Saturday, 32-year-old Maria Guzman Hernandez, a sixth-grade teacher at Hialeah's Our Lady of Charity, admitted to Hialeah police she'd had sex with the 15-year-old.
Hernandez was charged with sexual battery on a child over whom she had custodial authority, a charge similar to statutory rape.
The boy's mother, who acknowledged to both police and Department of Children & Families investigators that she approved of the relationship, is under investigation by both agencies for permitting the teen to have a months-long affair with the teacher, and for consenting to the theme park trip.
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| Maria Guzman Hernandez |
Hernandez and the teen had a "sexual relationship" for several months, and the boy told police they had been "sexually active" since March, according to a police report. The two met at the school, 1900 W. 44th Pl.
Detective Carl Zogby, a Hialeah police spokesman, said many of the couple's romantic encounters occurred at the apartment the boy shared with his mother.
"She apparently didn't find anything wrong with it, thought that the teacher was a nice enough person and a good influence on her son," Zogby said.
The teacher, who had been in good standing at the school, was asked to resign.
After being read her rights, Hernandez, who had been a teacher at the school for four years, admitted to having sex with the teen, Hialeah Detective Felix Mendigutia wrote in the police report.
She was released on $10,000 bail Sunday afternoon, according to Janelle Hall, a jail spokeswoman.
Hernandez, who is estranged from her husband, told DCF investigators "she was going through a lot in her life," said Jacqui Colyer, chief of the Miami DCF office. Hernandez's two children attend the Hialeah school.
Police have not charged the boy's mother, though they are still investigating her actions and deciding whether to file charges, Zogby said. The Miami Herald is not naming her in order to protect her son's identity.
A separate DCF investigation into whether the mom failed to protect her son is ongoing, Colyer said.
The mom told authorities she had consented to the affair.
"She didn't see anything wrong with it, and that's the challenge," Colyer said.
DCF has not removed the boy from his mother's custody, but the agency is planning to ask a child welfare judge to order the mom to accept services from the state. DCF has offered counseling to the boy and the rest of his family, Colyer said.
The mother migrated to the United States from Cuba.
In South Florida, the social service agency frequently provides outreach and education to new migrants whose parenting philosophies may not be acceptable, Colyer said.
"Parents can not allow their children to have [sexual] relationships with adults. That's just not acceptable in the United States," Colyer said. "That will not be acceptable under any circumstances."
Rumors began circulating at the school around May 20. For two days, principal Xenia Torres struggled with whether to report the rumored affair to DCF's abuse hot line, but a school attorney insisted they had no choice under a state law that mandates the reporting of all suspected child abuse or neglect, Colyer said.
DCF's abuse hot line received a report about the couple on Friday, and police were notified/, said a police spokesman.
Torres, the school's principal, declined to discuss Hernandez's arrest with a reporter Tuesday. "It's currently under investigation, and I'm not at liberty to say anything," she said.
Though the school identifies itself as a Catholic private school in state Department of Education records, Our Lady of Charity is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, said Mary Ross Agosta, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Miami.
Cheryl Etters, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said the state has not received any complaints about the school, which accepts students from pre-kindergarten through grade nine.
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