For the third time in as many weeks, a New York City public school employee has been accused of sexually abusing his charges. Police today arrested 49-year-old P.S. 174 computer teacher Wilbert Cortez, 49, and charged him with second-degree sexual misconduct against a child and acting in a manner to injure a child under 17.
According to the Queens DA spokesperson, Cortez "touched the genitals and the buttocks of an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old over their clothes in his classroom at P.S. 174 in Rego Park on at least two occasions during the 2010-11 school year." After the accusations were first made last October Cortez, who has worked for the Department of Education since 1986, was moved to a desk job. He has no previous criminal record.
Parents at the Queens school were alerted to the arrest in a letter from principal Karin Kelly. "Upon learning of this investigation, we immediately notified the Police Department and the Special Commissioner of Investigation, and reassigned Mr. Cortez to a central office away from students," it reads.
In a statement this afternoon, schools chancellor Dennis Walcott said, "No adult who inappropriately touches a student, in or out of school, belongs anywhere near the children we are responsible for protecting. I will do everything in my power to ensure that individuals like Mr. Cortez can be swiftly removed from our classrooms as soon as allegations surface—and be barred from teaching in our schools if those charges are substantiated." You almost feel bad for Walcott, man has had a LOT of this to deal with lately.
Now, before you go freaking out, let's all take a deep breath and remember what wise Mayor Bloomberg told us about pedophiles a week ago, okay? "The school system’s something like 125,000 people, and I don’t think it’s practical to think there isn’t going to be somebody doing despicable things. There are some sick people in the world, and you just have to learn to deal with them."
