YISD Teacher Accused Of Assaulting Child 18 Years Ago

Parent Monica Carbel was shocked to find out one of her sons’ former teachers was arrested this week on an outstanding warrant.

“I’m very surprised and I hope they take care of the situation,” said Carbel as she was picking her kids up at Ranchland Hills Middle School on Friday afternoon.

The principal at Ranchland Hills sent a letter out to parents Thursday explaining the situation regarding special education teacher Carlos Omar Cordero. The letter stated, in part, “(Cordero) was arrested for allegations based on conduct that purportedly occurred approximately 18 years ago in another Texas county. He was immediately placed on administrative leave pending resolution of these charges, and will not have further contact with students until that time.”

El Paso police said they arrested Cordero on the Ranchland Hills campus Wednesday morning. They booked him into the El Paso County Jail on an aggravated sexual assault of a child warrant issued out of Montgomerry County, Texas. Cordero spent about 15 hours in jail before posting bond. He’s expected to appear before a Montgomerry County judge in a couple of weeks to answer to the allegations.

ABC-7 tracked down the detectives who initiated the case against Cordero. Those detectives work out of the Shenandoah Police Department, which is near Houston. A detective told ABC-7 the alleged assault took place 18 years ago. Cordero is now 38 years old, which would make him 20 years old at the time of the incident. Police said the accuser was between 10 and 12 years old at the time.

So what took so long for the allegations to come to light? Shenendoah police said the accuser did not come forward until earlier this year.

YISD officials said they never experienced any issues with Cordero during his time at YISD. Cordero has been an employee at YISD since 2003, first as a substitute teacher. He became a special education teacher two years later.

Cordero is now on paid administrative leave pending the outocme of the allegations.

“YISD is committed to the safety of all our students and takes all necessary steps to protect our children,” said a district spokeswoman.