Lesbian Bronx teacher, 35, 'obsessed' with teenage female student fired after being found hiding behind her bed
BRONX, NEW YORK — A teacher was fired after she was found hiding behind her high school student's bed.
Officials at the Department of Education (DOE) claimed that Tamara A. Alvarez, 35, who taught history at the Bronx High School for Writing and Communication Arts, had a romantic relationship with her female student after she was found "hiding behind the bed" of the teenager in May 2017, according to disciplinary records viewed by the New York Post.
The shocking discovery was made by the boyfriend of the teen's mother.
When the victim's mother broke her foot and was hospitalized. She told her boyfriend to check on her daughter who was alone at home.
However, when he dropped by, there was no one in the house.
While in the house, he heard someone entering the residence and going into the daughter's bedroom.
Although he knocked on the door, no one answered.
After the student got home, both of them opened the door to her bedroom to find “a woman hiding behind the bed.”
The report added that after her mother's boyfriend asked Alvarez to leave, the teenager left the house too and refused to return home and stay with her family.
Before her teacher was found hiding behind her bed, the student had reportedly told her family that “she was dating a woman in her late 20s" without revealing who the person was.
Her mother reported Alvarez to the school authorities after the latter was identified by the boyfriend as the woman who was hiding behind her daughter's bed when she appeared on stage at the school’s graduation ceremony.
The fact that her mother had taken action against her teacher infuriated the victim even more.
“Mom, why are you doing this? She has kids," she reportedly told her mother.
After a probe into the teacher's conduct was launched by the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation, Alvarez was found to have texted the student at least 800 times between February and May 2017. The student had contacted the teacher about 500 times.
“Her involvement with this student is simply an obsession,” a DOE lawyer argued, which was countered by the defense lawyer saying Alvarez was only trying to help the victim who was struggling in school.
The accused's attorney further argued that the DOE did not impose any restrictions on the lengths of telephonic conversations between teachers and students. “We’re here because [Alvarez] is a lesbian,” her lawyer contended. “This is the very definition of unequal treatment.”
Alvarez's defense was not bought by hearing officer Sarah Miller Espinosa who terminated the accused's employment on Jan. 3 citing that she “targeted a vulnerable special education student” and “violated her position of trust.”