In Doral, Florida, 41-year-old Heiry Calvi is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old student. Calvi teaches at John I. Smith K-8th School and is now nearly nine months pregnant. Since her arrest, however, all but one charge has been dropped. Calvi was temporarily removed from the classroom and placed on administrative duties. Now she is only being charged with “Offenses Against Students by Authority Figures.”
Miami-Dade Teachers Arrested for Sexual Misconduct with Students: Are Certain Red Flags Slipping Through the Hiring Process?
Right now, multiple teachers in one of the largest school districts in the country are facing some type of sexual misconduct charge with a student or minor.
As the 2021 Fall semester wraps up, at least five teachers have been arrested. 27-year-old Aaron Hamid was a Social Studies school teacher at John A. Ferguson High School. A police report shows Hamid and a 16-year-old victim connected through an online class during the height of the pandemic. The relationship later grew into meetups at the teacher’s home, where the two had sex. The student’s best friend alerted authorities.
Hialeah Middle School teacher and teacher of the year, Brittiny Lopez Murray, was also arrested on October 4th for allegedly having sex in her car with a former 14-year-old student.
Then there’s Daniel Fernandez, a teacher at Renaissance Middle Charter School, who was arrested after accusations of having sex with a 14-year-old student. A former band teacher at South Dade Senior High was also recently released on bail for a 20-16 incident where a former student says she had sex with the teacher when she was 16.
As the school system deals with a major teacher shortage, many are wondering how does the school system vet for red flags and what should be done moving forward as recruitment for new teachers remains critical?
We spoke with a few teachers who would like to remain anonymous who say while the hiring process is thorough, questions about sexual misconduct are not often asked. One South Florida teacher says, “No matter how hard the hiring process becomes, sexual misconduct with a minor is a sickness and someone wearing a mask to cover that sickness can never be vetted enough.”
A spokesperson with the Miami-Dade County School District told CBS Miami, “M-DCPS will continue to review its employee training to ensure that our workforce is fully aware of the district’s professional expectations of them and their ethical obligation to safeguard children.”