Teacher pleads guilty to statutory rape

Gets 3 years’ probation for acts with 15-year-old

A former teacher at Bishop Byrne High School pleaded guilty Tuesday in Criminal Court to aggravated statutory rape involving a student and was sentenced to three years’ probation.

Jose Garcia, 31, who was director of technology for the Memphis Catholic Diocese’s Jubilee Schools, became involved with the 15year- old boy in February 2009 when they exchanged phone numbers and began texting and talking on the telephone.

Authorities said the relationship soon became physical and the two engaged in sexual acts in Bishop Byrne’s Junior Hall.

About a year later, the boy reported to a school faculty member that Garcia had “acted in a manner inappropriate for a teacher and adult toward a child,” according to a statement issued last year by diocese spokeswoman Suzanne Aviles when Garcia was indicted.

School officials notified the Department of Children’s Services, and the diocese also began an investigation.

Garcia was suspended and barred from school property, and he resigned in April 2010, Aviles said.

She said a background check was conducted before Garcia was hired and that no warning flags surfaced.

Garcia also completed a required child protection training program and was told of the schools’ expectations regarding professional and morally correct behavior, Aviles said in the statement.

As the investigation of Garcia progressed in 2010, he left the country and returned to his native Brazil.

He was arrested and charged last June when he returned to Memphis. — Lawrence Buser:

(901) 529-2385