Quezaltepeque teacher is sentenced to 18 years in prison for harassing five students

Carlos Balmore Valdez Morales was sentenced to 18 years in prison for harassing 5 eighth grade students in Quezaltepeque, La Libertad.

According to information from the Prosecutor’s Office, the harassment happened repeatedly during the months of May to November 2022, the accused was the victims’ teacher.

“According to the investigations, the teacher took advantage of the closeness and authority he had with his students to incite them to have sexual relations with each other and invited them to sleep at his house, where he touched them inappropriately,” said the prosecutor in the case.

The prosecutor’s source detailed that Valdez Morales threatened the victims so that they would comply with his orders or else he would lower their grades; Out of fear, the minors also remained silent.

“In 2023, after changes in administration and teaching, the victims were able to tell what they were experiencing and the relatives reported the accused to the authorities and to the Teaching Career Board to begin the relevant investigations,” said the prosecutor.

The sentence was decreed by the First Sentencing Court of Santa Tecla, which evaluated the documentary, expert and testimonial evidence presented by the prosecutor of the case at trial.

According to reports from the Prosecutor’s Office, 12 teachers were convicted of sexual crimes between 2021 and 2023. The incidence of sexual assaults by teachers against students is far from those committed in previous years, for example, between 2015 and 2020 a total of 125 teachers were reported for sexual violence, according to the records of the Teaching Career Court, a department of the Ministry of Education.