SAN ANTONIO — A 42-year-old substitute teacher accused of assaulting two students in a San Antonio-area school is back in custody for similar allegations at another campus.
Schertz police officials said Yorllin Hernandez was arrested Wednesday and faces charges of injury to a child stemming from an incident at Rose Garden Elementary. That's less than six miles away from Jordan Middle School, where Hernandez allegedly assaulted two students in late September before he was arrested.
Online records also show he previously charges for domestic violence in 2012.
Schertz police notified the public about the latter allegations last week, at which point the district confirmed Hernandez was at the center of both investigations. He had been out on bond for the initial arrest stemming from Jordan Middle School before he was arrested again this week.
According to an arrest affidavit, Hernandez was substituting at Rose Garden on Sept. 12 when he allegedly slapped two third graders in the back of their heads "excessively," seemingly for no reason. One of the victims told a child advocacy counselor that Hernandez "hit hard, very hard, it gave me a headache."
In the document, a mother of one of the third graders explained to police that her son did tell her about what happened at school that same day, but "she did not ask [her son] any more questions about it, thinking it was a misunderstanding." However, when she saw the news about Hernandez was arrested for assaulting a student at Jordan Intermediate School, "she grew concerned."
"We're very proud that students feel that they can go up to our officers and report something that can just be very uncomfortable for them and that they trust our officers enough to speak out when something does happen to them," Erik Mireles, public information officer for the Cibolo Police Department, said last week. "It's not good keeping things like this quiet."
Randy McGibeny, CEO and President of local non-profit ChildSafe, works to restore trust to children traumatized by abuse and neglect.
"I've heard a lot about various teachers or role models or individuals in positions of authority abusing children in the past. Most of the time, unfortunately in the nature of work that we do, what we see is the abuse is sexual by nature, not usually physical by nature," said McGibeny. "This one caught me, to be honest, a little bit off guard."
In these cases, McGibeny says the children did the right thing.
"They need to have the confidence and trust in those around them to be able to go and have conversations with them and feel like they're going to be, one, believed and, two, supported," said McGibeny.
Hernandez faces anywhere from 5 to 99 years or life in prison if convicted in either investigation. Officials with Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD said after the first arrest that Hernandez wouldn't be returning to the district "in any capacity."