A former South Texas high school employee was arrested on Friday after a 16-year-old student accused her of sexual assault.
Jail records from Hidalgo County show that 39-year-old Samantha Lee Carranza was arrested and charged with improper relationship between an educator and student and sexual assault of a child.
Carranza previously worked in the Sharyland Independent School District as a secretary for the assistant principal at Sharyland High School in Mission, according to KRGV News.
A probable cause arrest affidavit states that the student, identified under the pseudonym Cris, entered Carranza’s office on August 31 during his lunch break and asked to borrow a cell phone charger.
Carranza allegedly told Cris to remain in her office to charge his phone and began to talk with him about her ongoing divorce, per KRGV News.
Cris claimed he became uncomfortable after Carranza showed him a picture of her breasts from her phone.
“Cris explains he started walking toward the door of the conference room, and the defendant proceeds to close the door and tell him ‘you’re not going anywhere,'” reads the affidavit, per KRGV News.
The affidavit states that Carranza then pulled Cris closer to her with the strings of his hoodie and began to perform sexual acts on him, according to KXAN.
Following the encounter, Carranza allegedly told Cris she would “blame it all on him” if he told anyone.
A statement from Sharyland ISD spokeswoman Nancy Barboza, sent to KRGV News, said that Carranza worked for the district as a paraprofessional until September 7, and the district has now “actively engaged with law enforcement and various agencies, including the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Child Protective Services (CPS).”
“At Sharyland Independent School District, the safety and well-being of our students and staff is our highest priority. The District follows all legal requirements of obtaining a satisfactory criminal background check of each new hire prior to beginning employment. Furthermore, there are protocols in place for reporting misconduct.
“Our unwavering commitment is to provide a secure and conducive environment for every member of the SISD community. The District has a strict zero-tolerance policy when it comes to inappropriate behavior between staff members and students,” Barboza said in the statement, per KRGV News.
Mission police stated that Carranza turned herself in on Friday, per KXAN.
According to prison records, her bond was set at $10,000 for the two charges.
Closer to home, crime has continued to rise this year. As of September 19, 180 cases of fondling had been reported in Dallas, which is a 17.6% increase from this time last year, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard.