A 40-year-old teacher at Felix Varela Senior High has been arrested after a student accused him of attempting to sexually engage her during class.
Andy Barbosa-Morrell was arrested on charges of child abuse with no great bodily harm and making offenses against a student by an authority figure.
Barbosa-Morrell’s defense lawyer, Orlando Rodriguez, called his client “a committed teacher, and a loving husband and father” and said the “allegations against him are baseless and exaggerated.”
The incident happened Friday during Spanish class, officials say.
A high school student at Felix Varelatold police she was sitting at her desk when Barbosa-Morrell leaned down and caressed her leg right below her knee, according to his arrest affidavit. He asked if she was OK.
The girl told police she felt “creeped” out and that he stayed standing over her, smiling and staring, until she asked him why he was staring, police said.
Later in class, when the student had her head down on the desk, Barbosa-Morell walked over, gripped her hair and “jerked her head up and back,” the report states.
He “then placed his lips on the victim’s ear and whispered softly, No hable,” and then “forcefully pushed the victim’s head forward,” according to the report. No hable is Spanish for “don’t talk.”
When class ended and students were leaving, he told the girl, “No Hug? Give me a kiss” in Spanish, according to the report. She left. The student described the situation to police “as if he was attempting to sexually engage her,” according to the report.
Barbosa-Morrell’s defense attorney pushed back on the allegations.
“The very idea that a teacher would make sexual advances towards a student in a classroom full of students is absolutely absurd,” Rodriguez said.
“Mr. Barbosa merely tried to wake a student who was sleeping in his classroom,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “He tapped her shin (she was wearing long pants) in efforts to wake her. Neither did Mr. Barbosa pull her hair or make any of the statements alleged in the affidavit.”
He added: “I ask that you keep in mind that [formal] charges have not been filed against Mr. Barbosa, and that you withhold judgment until the real facts come to light.”
Police note in the report that several witnesses in the class were interviewed and corroborated the girl’s account and that when they asked Barbosa-Morrell about the incident, he stated “that he did not remember the incident, but never denied it occurring.”
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