A former Miami charter school teacher has been placed under arrest for allegedly having sex with a student some years ago.
Records stated that Michael A. Tamayo, 39, was charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a child, engaging in sexual activities with a kid, and attempting to engage in sex acts with a child when he was booked into a Miami-Dade jail on Thursday.
Tamayo was a social studies teacher at Mater Academy East Charter School from 2012 to 2017, according per the arrest warrant. He taught social studies to students in grades 9 through 12.
In April, investigators discovered that the purported victim was undergoing therapy. During a session, she disclosed to them that Tamayo, her high school instructor at the institution, had been grooming her when she was in the 15–16 age range.
The warrant stated that the alleged victim stated that Tamayo befriended her and began communicating to her after school while he was in charge of organizing a school trip to Italy, which is when the grooming allegedly started.
The warrant stated that she claimed he tried to rape her at school and that he had behaved inappropriately toward her on several occasions.
According to the warrant, Tamayo began improperly touching her and sending her indecent texts when they traveled on the school trip to Italy.
When they got back to Miami, the acts went on; according to the warrant, he touched her inappropriately when they were alone in his classroom.
According to the warrant, Tamayo was able to convince her to meet him at a hotel at one point, where he gave her a sex act. The purported victim claimed that after she found a lover, she stopped speaking with him.
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The warrant stated that Tamayo was a defendant in another claimed victim’s sexual and lascivious event, according to a records check.
It was disclosed in court on Friday that Tamayo was detained in Virginia, where he currently resides, and then extradited to Miami-Dade.
Despite Tamayo’s lack of prior criminal history, the judge denied his defense attorney’s request for a release and instead ordered him to be kept without it.
