Teacher left Dade Schools for unknown reason. Child-porn charge came after returning
A Miami-Dade substitute teacher who was arrested on a charge of possessing child pornography was a Miami-Dade County Public Schools employee for seven years before leaving and being hired to work for a school by a third-party employment agency, the district said.
George Henry Rafols — a 37-year-old substitute teacher at the Air Base K-8 Center in Homestead — was arrested on Wednesday following a nearly year-long investigation that began with a cyber tip in October 2023, according to Homestead Police Capt. Fernando Morales.
Rafols was employed by MDCPS from 2016 to October 2023, the same month the investigation into him began, according to district spokesperson Elmo Lugo.
It is unclear why he left MDCPS in October, according to Lugo.
Rafols was then hired by Kelly Services, an employment agency that MDCPS uses to hire substitute teachers. MDCPS said it was not informed of the investigation regarding him until school police were contacted by Homestead Police right before his arrest, according to Lugo.
Rafols is the second Miami-Dade school employee to be jailed on child-porn charges in less than a month.
In August, Robert Lee Turner, a 62-year-old autism specialist who was employed by the school district, was arrested after being accused of uploading two videos of child porn to more than 50 users, according to Miami-Dade police.
READ MORE: Psychologist with Miami-Dade Schools hoards child porn, distributes it online, cops say.
According to the arrest report, Rafols was identified through internet records after an explicit photo of a 10-year-old girl was uploaded to the Discord messaging app.
Rafols appeared in court Thursday morning. His bond was set at $7,500 and he was placed on house arrest with GPS surveillance.
“Miami-Dade County Public Schools is profoundly troubled by the concerning allegations made against this individual, leading to his arrest. .... Although he is not an employee of M-DCPS, he will no longer be able to serve as a substitute teacher in the district,” the school district said.