Broward teacher arrested on multiple charges involving sex with a 17-year-old student
A Broward County teacher was in bed with one of his students when a phone app used to locate the minor’s phone led the girl’s father, and then police, to the teacher’s door at 1 a.m. Saturday, police said.
Police say when Philip Velez opened the door to his Hollywood apartment, he admitted the girl, whom he called his girlfriend, was inside. Arrest records say Velez told police he had been in a sexual relationship with the student since last month and he knew it was wrong because of the student’s age. Velez is 28 and the student is 17.
Velez was arrested and is facing three counts of sexual battery on a minor as well as a charge involving a person of authority soliciting sex.
According to Velez’s LinkedIn account, he is an assistant basketball coach at Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines. The account also says he has been culinary arts teacher with the Broward School District since 2019.
In court Monday, Velez’s attorney told the judge that the student was two months shy of no longer being a minor, prompting a response from prosecutor Eric Linder.
“He’s a teacher,” Linder said. “He’s a teacher in a position where he is supposed to be protecting children and teaching children, not engaging in sexual relationships with them.”
According to Velez’s arrest report, he and the student met at a fund-raiser in October. Soon they were texting back and forth and meeting outside of the school so they could speak in person. In December Velez invited the student to his apartment and they started a sexual relationship.
Records say police were called to the apartment by the girl’s father early Saturday morning after a phone app revealed the girl was there.
Bond was set at $85,000 Monday morning.