Catholic school teacher charged in sexual relationship with 15-year-old

A 35-year-old teacher at a Catholic school in Hollywood is accused of coercing a 15-year-old female student into a sexual relationship, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday. At one point, he chaperoned a high school Model United Nations trip to New York City, where the two had sex multiple times.

Boris Fernando Bastidas is now charged with coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity and traveling in interstate or foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual activity. He had his first appearance in Fort Lauderdale federal court Thursday morning.

Bastidas chaired the social studies department of Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory, a private Catholic school, where he was named Educator of the Year in 2023, according to the school’s Instagram page, the same year that the alleged sexual relationship occurred.

Bastidas was the girl’s teacher her freshman year, and they began communicating when she asked him to help her run for sophomore vice president, according to the complaint. Over that summer, their emails and texts grew increasingly flirtatious, and they continued the relationship during the school year, meeting up in secret for sexual encounters, the complaint said.

The FBI began investigating Bastidas in February after the girl’s mother notified them, according to the criminal complaint. They searched the girl’s phone and personal email, as well as school emails between her and Bastidas, uncovering daily messages the two had sent back and forth over the summer of 2023. The emails from Bastidas’ school account were deleted, but school officials were able to recover them from a backup server.

“You’re not just a student anymore, to me,” Bastidas wrote to the girl in August from his school email account.

“You’re not just a teacher to me, anymore,” she replied. “What am I to you?”

“What if I told you that like you said to me there’s somethings I would rather say to you in person,” he replied.

When school officials met with Bastidas privately, they read some of the emails aloud, according to the complaint. They asked him if he recalled sending and receiving the emails, and he said he did, describing it as an “error in judgment.”

The teacher and the student later moved the conversations to their private emails and phones, discussing where to meet up without being discovered before school started and eventually deciding on a Dunkin’ Donuts.

After their meeting, they continued to text, declaring their love for each other and sending each other sexually explicit messages. They

saved each other in their phones as “Dunkin’.”

“There’s not a lot I would do, to risk so much of my professional life, even my personal life for … but for some reason, [redacted], you make me risk it all,” Bastidas emailed in October.

Investigators interviewed the victim, who told them that she would perform oral sex in Bastidas’ car in different parking lots in Miramar and Hollywood.

When Bastidas and another teacher chaperoned the Model UN trip to New York City, the victim said he had sex with her in his room multiple times before everyone woke up or after they went to bed, according to the complaint. He bought her gifts, including a bracelet, necklace, T-shirt and keychain, all of which she wore to her interview with the FBI.

She said he told her he didn’t want to get in trouble or break the law, and “was concerned about something happening and hurting her.”

Investigators corroborated her story using phone records and surveillance footage of Bastidas’ car.

Bastidas was fired during the investigation, the head of school, Judith Mucheck, told reporters in a statement.

“When we became aware of the allegations, we conducted an investigation, and he was terminated immediately,” she said.