Two NYC teachers facing charges

(New York-WABC, February 15, 2006) (WABC) -- Two New York City teachers are facing charges this morning. They are accused of preying on children in separate incidents.

Eyewitness News reporter Ken Rosato has the story.

Police have a lot of questions for the 54-year-old teacher, Francisco Acevedo who allegedly invited a 15-year-old male student to move in with him.

Acevedo, who teaches Spanish at South Bronx Prep was arrested yesterday. The student, described as "troubled" claims he recently found a camera with a red, blinking light in the bathroom of Acevedo's apartment. He says he followed a wire from the camera to the bedroom, where he saw it connected to a VCR. He says he played a tape inside, and saw pictures of himself showering and using the toilet.

Acevedo who now lives in Queens, is charged with unlawful surveillance and endangering the welfare of a child.

The other case in Brooklyn, a fifth grade teacher is set to be arraigned this morning for allegedly groping three female students.

Fifty-one-year-old Dolph Timmerman turned himself in yesterday after the ten-year-old girls reported him to school authorities at PS 123 in Bushwick.

They claim Timmerman fondled them on the backside.

Eyewitness News has learned Timmerman turned himself in after the principal at P.S. 123 on Irving Avenue in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn called police. The girls reported the alleged incidents to a guidance counselor, who immediately went to the principal.

Officials say Timmerman has been working for the Department of Education only since the school year began in September. The teacher has been placed on administrative duty - away from children - pending an investigation.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the teacher was the same Dolph Timmerman who inspired a character on the animated series "The Simpsons." A bullying classmate of Bart Simpson's was named after a Dolph Timmerman, who went to Lincoln High School in Portland, Ore., with series creator Matt Groening.

According to the high school's alumni Web site, a Dolph Timmerman who now lives in New York graduated from the high school in 1971. Groening's publicist did not return calls for comment.

Timmerman is facing charges of sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Some parents told us they are concerned that they were not notified about this by the school.

Concerned Mother: "My son goes to this school (PS 123) and even though it's a girl he's touching, who's to say he's not touching boys also. With so much of this going on he shouldn't be here."

Concerned Father: "It's terrible right now. I think it's the first time I here something like that especially in this neighborhood."

The arrests came a month after a special schools investigator, Richard Condon reported his office substantiated 250 complaints of misconduct of high school employees in 2005. That's the most since the office was created in 1992.

Of those cases, 92 have been sexual misconduct. These cases ranged from rape and relationships between teachers and students to sex harassment and school employees exposing themselves.

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