Lawsuit accuses substitute teacher of sexual abuse
Inappropriate touching of girl, indecent exposure alleged
A lawsuit filed against La Promesa Early Learning Center alleges that the beleaguered charter school failed to adequately supervise or vet a substitute teacher who allegedly touched a 6-yearold student inappropriately and exposed himself to other children.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 9 in 2nd Judicial District Court, claims substitute teacher Ted Padilla used his position of authority to abuse the girl in September 2015, then warned her not to tell anyone.
Padilla had been hired to teach first grade through the temp agency Kelly
Services, which is also named in the lawsuit, along with the New Mexico Public Education Department and Analee Maestas, former executive director of the school.
The allegations are one more headache for La Promesa, a statechartered, dual-language school that has about 360 students in kindergarten through eighth grades.
Next week, the Public Education Commission will conduct a hearing to decide whether to pull the school’s charter over issues unrelated to the lawsuit, forcing it to close this summer.
La Promesa breached its duties by failing to ensure that adults in positions of authority were not a risk to students, according to the lawsuit.
The girl’s attorneys — F. Michael Hart and Kelly Stout Sanchez — told the Journal it is unclear whether Kelly Services or La Promesa required Padilla to complete a background check.
“We have tried to figure out those relationships and what duties were owed by whom but hit a lot of brick walls,” Hart said.
La Promesa Executive Director Chris Jones told the Journal he was not with the school in 2015 and declined to comment on the lawsuit.
A police investigation appears to show that the department was notified of the incident by a relative of the girl.
No one was available to respond at Kelly Services’ Michigan headquarters Wednesday afternoon.
According to the lawsuit, Padilla “had a history of inappropriate conduct towards students and staff at his prior places of employment and posed a threat to (La Promesa) students.”
Hart and Sanchez also argue that Padilla was not well-supervised once he was in the classroom, which enabled him to take advantage of students.
Schools have a duty to supervise substitutes “very, very closely to ensure not only that the education content is competent and professional, but that the behaviors are appropriate,” Hart said. “It is common sense, really,” he said. La Promesa fired Padilla after parents called the school about the indecent exposure, Hart said.
According to a police report, Padilla had “unzipped his pants in front of the class and was touching himself as well by making an up and down motion with his hand.”
The 6-year-old girl reportedly told a relative that Padilla took her to a separate room, pulled down her pants and touched her inappropriately, the report says.
The school’s problems began in February 2016 when Maestas was accused of writing over a $342.40 receipt to receive improper reimbursement for home maintenance. The Office of the State Auditor conducted an investigation and determined that Maestas had doctored the invoice.
In February, the Public Education Commission voted 5-3 to begin charter revocation proceedings against La Promesa, citing poor fiscal management and low academic performance.