MIAMI – A now-former teacher at a public high school in Miami sent inappropriate messages to two female students, according to police, leading to his arrest on multiple felony charges.
Miami-Dade Schools police arrested Roger Alaniz, 24, of Little Havana, on Thursday. He taught at Miami Senior High School, located at 2420 SW First St., also in the Little Havana neighborhood.
According to an arrest report, one of the students told police that the inappropriate messages began in October when Alaniz “wrote his personal phone number on a paper she was working on, which she ignored.”
“Alaniz asked numerous times, ‘Have you added me yet?’ and ‘When are you going to text me?’” police wrote. “(The victim) replied, ‘I forgot, I’ll do it later.’”
Police said Alaniz “approached her with his phone and said, ‘put your number.’ (She) felt pressured and entered her phone number in his phone.”
The report states their conversation was normal at first, but he began texting her inappropriately.
“I think I might have a crush on you,” police say he texted the student. “Is that weird?”
This made the student “uncomfortable,” police said.
“She felt guilty about not reporting it because she could have stopped him from reaching out to other girls,” the report states.
One of those other students told police that Alaniz had added her on Instagram in November, police said.
According to the report, the conversations were at first about school, but soon veered into inappropriate topics.
Those included “personal problems with friends and boys,” for which he gave advice, police said.
Authorities said he also asked her “how far she sexually engaged with a boy” and “invited her to go out with him to watch a movie and drive her around town.”
After the student ignored his messages, police said Alaniz told her that her “grades would be affected.”
The victim then “told him she wanted a different teacher,” the report states.
“Alaniz told her she would not be able to get out of his class, and if she did, he would find her,” police said.
The student told police that she didn’t report the texts sooner because she “feared” Alaniz, according to the report.
Police said they spoke with Alaniz for a scheduled interview Wednesday and he waived his Miranda rights; what he allegedly said next is redacted from the report.
Authorities then arrested him and confiscated his iPhone, police said.
Alaniz, charged with two counts of offenses against students by authority figures and child abuse with no great bodily harm, was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $15,000 bond as of Friday afternoon.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Miami-Dade County Public Schools said the district was “profoundly troubled” by the “concerning allegations” made against Alaniz.
“Upon learning about this suspected behavior, he was immediately reassigned away from the school while Miami-Dade Schools Police conducted their investigation, and his employment with the District was subsequently terminated,” the statement reads in part.
The spokesperson said the district “goes to great lengths to provide a safe school environment for our students and employees; all new teachers undergo ethics and civil rights compliance/Title IX training as part of their onboarding. This individual will be precluded from seeking future employment with the District.”