Amigos teacher is charged with sexual assault from before employment, district tells families
The Amigos School in Cambridgeport. (Image: Google)
A teacher at the Amigos School has been charged with sexual assault, Cambridge Public Schools superintendent Victoria Greer said in a Wednesday email to families.
The teacher has been placed on administrative leave, Greer said.
The superintendent added that the employee was not with the Cambridge district “when the alleged assault occurred.”
Still, she said, “I understand that this information is upsetting and distressing,” and called for the community to handle the situation by maintaining confidentiality and avoiding speculation or the spreading of misinformation “given the sensitive and serious nature of the allegations.”
“It is important to note that the district’s employment process includes criminal record checks and National Criminal Background fingerprint checks in addition to personal and professional references, educational and employment background checks,” Greer said.
A message seeking more information was left Wednesday with a district spokesperson. The spokesperson ignored questions and replied with information already given in Greer’s email.
WBZ reported Wednesday that the suspect was Jorge Alexis Bonilla, a fourth-grade teacher. A grand jury indicted Bonilla on nine counts from incidents as long as 10 years ago involving two girls under the age of 14, and he would be indicted Monday in Middlesex Superior Court, television stations said. Charges include two counts of aggravated rape of a child and three counts of a rape of a child by force, WHDH and Boston 25 said.
Social workers were available for students, staff or family members who felt affected by news of the arrest. “We are committed to providing assistance and guidance during this challenging time,” Greer said, calling the situation “a very serious matter.”
Greer has faced challenges recently for hiring procedures that have left many dissatisfied or concerned, including the hiring of a principal at the Graham & Parks School that seemed to miss a “toxic workplace” investigation in a previous school district. The most recent School Committee evaluation of Greer cited earlier problematic hiring processes at the Fletcher Maynard Academy and the Morse School.
During a March 19 committee meeting, parent Shawdee Eshghi said bad hiring processes have given Graham & Parks “two individuals working at our school who were forced to leave their previous positions and, in one case, even change their name due to inappropriate conduct with children. So just to let that sink in, this school now employs not one, not two, but three individuals who are deemed unfit for their other schools.”
The Wednesday email may be the most public criminal issue since July 2020, when an enrichment program staff member for the Kennedy Community School & Neighborhood Council – the after-school program for Kennedy-Longfellow School – was charged with receiving and possessing child pornography.
Amigos is a JK-8 school focused on immersive, dual-language education – in this case, English and Spanish. It expanded to its current form in the mid-1990s from its founding as a program at the Maynard School in 1986. It’s located at on Upton Street in the Cambridgeport neighborhood.
I believe it’s time for Greer to go. More friends being hired? We need new leaders. This is totally unacceptable.
Wow how sad CPS has become:
– Student enrollment declines
– Draconian covid policies first to close last to open
– Dismal attendance with off the charts chronic absenteeism
– Removal of oh just ALGEBRA from all middle school scholars (thank you !Patty! for forcing them to “phase it back in”
– Human Resource dept hello is anyone home my goodness
– 50% FIFTY % of children can’t read or write proficiently
The solution is to spend more money and cancel the MCAS test so no one can see the results. Or better yet compare it to some hollowed out city.
Just when you think it’s bottomed…
Was there nothing on record about this individual before the recent indictment? It is concerning indeed!
If the incidents happened 10 years ago (as the indictments say), and the victims didn’t bring forward a complaint until recently, and the accused otherwise had a clean record– then no, a background check performed several years ago when he began work at CPS would not return any troubling results.
There wouldn’t have been any troubling results to find, until the victims came forward (and we don’t know when they did).
He was indicted in February, yet it took until March 26th for them to put out an email to parents that have children in the public schools? And said email contained no readily available information, like the man’s name is Jorge Bonilla. As a parent of 2 children in Cambridge public schools I find this very disturbing.
Brocktoon–that timeline IS disturbing!
The city council had to embarass the CPS admin to force back Algebra to the middle schools.
The parents (not all but a lot) from G & Parks had to bring attention on the leadership or lack thereof.
The news networks cbs nbc abc globe had to bring attention report one of the teachers was being indicted for only child rape.
The parents of all schools had to force the admin to re open the schools and stop the madness of zoom school.
What’s the common theme?
It’s obvious – No Leadership.
Not just from dr Greer it’s across the board. There needs to be a complete overhaul not a tweak. A tweak will end up at the same place just with another leader.
If dr Greers contract is renewed let’s hope she cleans house. If it’s not then the new candidate selection process should include “large restructuring experience.”
I would also note that Dr. Greer’s email did not say RAPE OF TWO 14 YEAR OLDS, just sexual assault from 10 years ago.
sorry, my bad UNDER 14!!!
Grand jury proceedings are secret. The grand jury did vote to indict in February, but the district attorney did not announce the indictment until March 26. The school district did not know about it until that day, and made the announcement that same day.
I know we all love to poop on CPS, and not without reason– but this situation is not one you can lay at CPS’ feet. CPS was just as bewildered by this news as everyone else.
Once again the district fails to notify a school community about a serious issue in a timely manner. Meanwhile, Dr. Greer and the school committee have been ignoring until very recently children’s negative experiences with a PE teacher at G&P who was transferred from another school last year, and who has a long and documented history of *at best* poor judgement that goes back years. The district would rather protect our toxic principal who has actively dismissed serious parental concerns about this teacher than protect our kids. We need new leadership NOW. And if the School Committee doesn’t see that, well then we need a new School Committee.