LAUDERHILL, Fla. – A Broward County teacher arrested Monday on a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct is denying any wrongdoing, speaking exclusively to Local 10 News as he bonded out of jail Wednesday.
Damian Francis, 44, a teacher at Endeavour Primary Learning Center in Lauderhill, is accused of touching a 6-year-old girl inappropriately.
On March 2, a mother reported her daughter told her that she no longer wanted to wear a skirt or a dress to school because Francis “rubs on her leg when she does and she does not like it,” according to a police report.
“He was doing something weird to me,” the report states.
Francis flat-out denied the accusations.
“‘My teacher was doing something weird to me.’ What do you think she was talking about when she said that?” Local 10 News reporter Roy Ramos asked.
“I really don’t know,” Francis replied. “Like I told you before, I told her to sit properly. I would tap her foot. I don’t know if she was bothered by that because I did it a couple of times, but eventually she got it. She started sitting properly.”
Francis was previously accused of similar behavior and was taken out of the classroom.
“After that investigation was closed, Francis returned to school in January after being out for two to three months,” a Lauderhill police detective wrote in the May 27 complaint affidavit.
During questioning on March 24, Francis admitted to touching a girl on her stomach, police said.
“But this isn’t the first time you have been accused of this sort of thing,” Ramos said to Francis.
“She said her stomach was hurting. Someone told me call the mother. I called the mother and told her exactly what happened,” Francis replied. “We set up a parent conference because the mother claimed she was touched in the past. The next day I hear there are charges. So, I don’t know.”
A BCPS spokesperson said Tuesday that the district was aware of Francis’s arrest and announced he was being reassigned to “a position away from the school and students.”
Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.