Met victim on online app; parents should be aware
An Osceola County elementary school teacher has been arrested and charged with sexual battery on a minor.
Osceola Sheriff Marcos Lopez announced Monday that Joel Velasco Tapil, 36, a first-grade teacher at Deerwood Elementary School in the Poinciana section of Kissimmee, reportedly used a dating app to meet with the teenage victim, who Lopez did not connect Monday to the school.
In a release earlier in the afternoon, the agency said its Special Crimes Unit started an investigation Friday in regards to a suspected sexual battery of a minor later discovered to be a 15-year-old male. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that the suspect was a first-grade teacher.
Addressing media later, Lopez said the victim’s father spoke to detectives Friday in relation to his son being sexually battered at some point in the suspect’s home. The father confronted the suspect, who begged the father not to call police.
“But, he did. Good job,” Lopez said, noting there’s no evidence yet whether the suspect knew the victim was a minor before they met.
The victim told investigators he and the suspect made contact on the dating app Grindr, and they met at Tapil’s residence. During this encounter, Tapil reportedly began kissing the victim, who told him to stop repeatedly. Tapil reportedly then held the victim down on the bed and sexually battered him, after which the victim was able to flee.
A search warrant was issued for the residence, where Tapil was arrested and booked into jail on zero bond, charged with sexual battery on a child by a suspect over age 18.
Lopez took the chance to alert parents of what goes on with their children online, and to monitor with a watchful eye.
“There’s a lot of dating apps and video game rooms where kids are partaking with people they don’t know,” he said. “It’s a parent’s responsibility to monitor these platforms. If they’re a kid, and you’re the parent, it’s your phone, your laptop. Make sure they aren’t doing anything to regret in the future that they’ll need protection from.”
Lopez said detectives are now investigating to see if there may be any other victims or connections. He said police haven’t found a prior criminal history for Tapil yet.
An Osceola County School District spokesperson said Tapil is an international teacher brought in through the International Alliance Group on a J1 working visa. He started with the district in September 2022, and only worked at Deerwood. Lopez couldn’t say yet Monday whether this case and charge would affect his visa status.
“I have no clue, I’m hoping it will,” he said. “But hopefully he’ll serve about 25 years in prison, then we can send him on his way.”
Since he is a probationary employee, the Superintendent will be moving to separate him from employment with the district, the spokesperson said.
According to Tapil’s LinkedIn page, he has taught in his native Phillipines for the last 13 years, where it says he earned teaching awards at the elementary level in 2020.
This is the second time within a month an Osceola School District employee has been charged with sexual crimes against a minor. Samuel Figueroa, 43, was arrested on April 6 and charged with eight lewd and lascivious conduct charges after multiple students at Celebration High School told police he had been requesting explicit photos of students, and had touched some of them inappropriately.
Court records this week showed Figueroa has pled not guilty, and his defense team has filed a motion to reduce his bond down from the $184,000 on which he remains held in the Osceola County Jail.
