Miami-Dade elementary school employee showed porn to, inappropriately touched students: Police

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — An employee at a Miami-Dade elementary school is facing three felony charges after authorities said he showed pornography ― including of himself and of child sexual abuse ― to multiple students. He’s also accused of inappropriately touching students.

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According to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, the case revolves around Cesar Oriol Cardoso, who worked at Sunset Park Elementary School, located at 10235 SW 84th St. in the Kendall area.

The report states that Cardoso had at least five victims. Police said the investigation into the 53-year-old, who lives in Miami’s Flagami neighborhood, began in mid-April. The M-DSPD report does not list what Cardoso’s position was at the time.

Police said he would pull girls from physical education, other classes, or lunch to come back to his classroom to “complete classwork if they were behind” and then show them “inappropriate images or videos.”

Many of the images showed naked women, according to the M-DSPD report. At least two students reported Cardoso showing them what they believed to be nude photos of himself, it states. Authorities said one image depicted child sexual abuse, showing a boy between 12 and 14 with a woman.

Cardoso is also accused of touching or slapping multiple girls on the buttocks or thighs and making inappropriate comments towards them, including one instance where he had his “hand over his clothing on his crotch” and asked a girl if she wanted to “squish it.”

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Police said he also tried or expressed a desire to kiss at least two of them.

The girls’ ages weren’t listed; one of them, however, was identified as being in the third grade and said the behavior continued as she went into the fourth grade.

Police said that M-DSPD detectives interviewed Cardoso at their headquarters on Friday, where he invoked his right to remain silent.

He faces charges of offenses against students by authority figures, showing obscene material to a minor and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16.

As of Monday morning, he was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, jail records show.

Cardoso’s arrest report lists his occupation as “hospitality,” so it wasn’t immediately clear whether he was still employed by Miami-Dade County Public Schools at the time of his arrest.

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Local 10 News has contacted M-DCPS seeking comment on the arrest.