Two school employees suspended

Tuesday, June 22, 2004 | 9:50 a.m.

A school custodian and a teacher's assistant in the Clark County School District are accused of sex-related charges involving children, less than a week after a substitute teacher was charged with having sex with students.

Nephye Acevedo-Villatoro, 26 was arrested Monday on charges of exposing himself to a 14-year-old girl, School District police said.

Marlene Hazel, 29, a teacher's assistant, is scheduled to appear this week in Henderson Justice Court to face charges of having sex with a 14-year-old male neighbor.

Lina Guiterrez, director of licensed personnel for the district, said this morning both employees have been suspended and dismissal procedures have begun.

Both Acevedo-Villatoro and Hazel are considered support employees, Guiterrez said. The FBI background check and screening process is the same for all 30,000 of the district's employees, Guiterrez said.

"We find out if they have so much as a traffic ticket," Guiterrez said. "The problem is no one can tell us in advance that someone's going to do something bad for the first time after we hire them."

Acevedo-Villatoro was hired March 4 of this year and was assigned to Coronado High School. Hazel, a teacher's assistant hired in 1997, most recently was assigned to Gordon McCaw Elementary School in Henderson.

A School District attorney has told Acevedo-Villatoro "that he can't go back to work based on the charges against him," Guiterrez said.

District officials were informed June 7 of the allegations against Hazel and she was immediately suspended, Guiterrez said.