SAN ANTONIO, TX – Staff members at a local school are being credited for recognizing signs of trouble in a girl who later revealed she was being sexually assaulted.
An arrest warrant affidavit said the case came to light May 17, when a teacher at one of the Southwest Independent School District’s campuses noticed a 9-year-old girl watching online pornography and confronted her.
KSAT 12 News has chosen not to reveal the name of the school to protect the identity of the child.
The affidavit says the student told her teacher that Anthony Garay, 31, had been sexually assaulting her for at least a year.
She said she was watching the racy website to learn more about what Garay had been doing to her, the court document says.
RELATED: Sex assault case comes to light after girl caught watching porn in school
The teacher turned to a school counselor for assistance, and school administrators later notified the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
Garay was arrested Tuesday on a charge of continuous sexual assault of a child.
Luis Gonzalez, coordinator of guidance and counseling for Southwest ISD, said all staff members are trained regularly to look for signs of trouble among students.
"Dressing differently, behaving differently in the classroom or around students and peers, or if they are talking about things that are not age appropriate," he said. "Our teachers, counselors, they are prepared to handle situations like this."
Gonzalez and the school district declined to comment specifically on this case.
However, he did acknowledge that with technology such as cellphones and tablets readily available to students, staff and faculty have to be more vigilant.
"It has made things more complicated now with social media and how things can spread so quickly,” Gonzalez said.
In this case, it appears technology helped to alert staff members to the girl’s situation.
The affidavit said when the child spoke to sheriff’s investigators, she told them that Garay also had been sexually assaulting her sister.
There are no charges filed against him related to the sister at this time.
According to the affidavit, Child Protective Services had conducted a previous investigation involving claims of sexual assault by Garay against the same two girls.
KSAT 12 News reached out to Mary Walker, spokeswoman for the Department of Family and Protective Services, which oversees CPS. However, she said she could not offer any details on that previous investigation.
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