A former Science teacher in Public School 249 vigorously denied allegations made toward him for sexual assaulting students he taught at the school. The charges were brought to light in 2014. 38-year-old Omil Carrasquillo appeared before the New York District Supreme Court on the 13th of March. He took to the witness stand so as to defend himself from the accusations made that he assaulted 8 to 11-year-old girls from November 2012 to September 2014. The charges were brought up after some of the girls in his class reported that he touched them inappropriately.
“No, I never, ever, ever, ever touched a student in an inappropriate way. It’s disgusting,” Mr. Carrasquillo said from the stand. The New York District accuses the former Science teacher of touching the intimate parts of some of his female students when they were hugging. Mr. Carrasquillo, however, defended himself by saying he only offered the students moral support and did not abuse them.
“If a student was upset, I’d tell them everything was okay. If a student was sad, I’d give them high-fives. Some students would jump on me,” he explained in the courtroom.
The teacher was dismissed by the school’s administration after an incident with one of the students in his classroom. The incident was the root of numerous allegations which earned public school 249 negative publicity. Following his dismissal, the Department of Education offered him a reassignment which he refused. Mr. Carrasquillo abruptly resigned after that.
Explaining the reasons behind his choice to resign and refuse a reassignment, he said, “I was disgusted, disgusted with the education system. I gave them eight years.”
This is not the first time Mr. Carrasquillo has been in court over the issue. He previously appeared before the New York District Court on March 6th. His attorney, Anthony LaPinta said that he planned to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the teacher was innocent.
Mr. LaPinta explained to the Brooklyn Supreme Court that the accusations were made because Mr. Carrasquillo had become a disciplinarian within the school, a role the students he taught did not particularly like.
“In room 219, Mr. Carrasquillo hosted the third, fourth and fifth-grade science classes. He taught there for eight years, and students called him ‘Mr. C’,” LaPinta explained. He went on to say, “He was popular and social with everyone, he treated the kids like friends and wasn’t much of a disciplinary and as a result problems resulted in the classroom so the next school year he became stricter.”
Assistant District Attorney Ebonie Legrand made well aware his intentions to have five of the children who were allegedly assaulted testify against the teacher. During the investigation, nine children came up to report cases where Mr. Carrasquillo had assaulted them. However, four of the families did not want to continue participating in the court proceedings and therefore pulled out their charges.
Mr. Carrasquillo faces up to 5 to 7 years per student if he is found guilty of committing the crimes.
