Parents Of Students Show Support For Teacher Charged With Possessing Child Porn

A local high school dance teacher accused of possessing child pornography, including a video of a young girl being molested by a grown man, has parents of some of his students supporting him.

Irvin High School educators Marco Alferez, 34, was arrested last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents with the cyber grimes group.

According to a criminal complaint, federal agents found 3 video files on Alferez’s home computer, all of them included prepubescent girl engaging in sexual acts.

The same document states Alferez admitted to authorities he downloaded the porn and had it for several years.

At a court hearing on Monday, parents of some of the students who Alferez taught dance to told ABC-7 they support the accused teacher.

“We’re still here, we want to see what’s going to happen with him, and everybody makes mistakes, this is a really bad one. We’re still in doubts if that really happened or not, we’ll wait for the evidence, we’re not going to judge him because he was a really good teacher”, said parent Marcela Quiroz, who’s daughter is in the dance team.

Quiroz said Alferez taught her daughter important lessons and have them no reason to be suspicious of him. “She improved a lot, more than anything, it’s the self-respect and the respect for others. Whatever the outcome of this is, he was good to my daughter”, Quiroz said.

Parents also told ABC-7 Alferez often spent money out of his own pocket to get uniforms for the students and that he had strict rules.

“He’s been a wonderful person, very disciplined, he taught the kids a lot of discipline, no excuses, they had to be on time”, Quiroz said in an on-camera interview.

Some of the mothers of the students cried while they spoke about the affect Alferez had on their daughters. Quiroz did not cry, but said everyone deserved a second chance.

“Everybody’s innocent until proven guilty… more than anything we’re waiting for him to speak up, to say why he did it, if he did it”, she said.

Quiroz made it clear. The group of parents there do not condone child pornography.

“We are not pro these types of incidents, no, we’re against, but we’re human beings and anyone deserves a second chance and we need to hear from him”, she said.

Marco Alferez remains at the El Paso County Jail and is on paid administrative leave from the El Paso Independent School District.

His court hearing has been rescheduled to Wednesday at 3 p.m.