Student recounts improper actions by Martinez, now in jail.
MARFA — Three girls had previously filed complaints against the Marfa ISD teacher — Juan Tarango Martinez, 54, of Marfa — arrested last Tuesday and charged with indecency with a child and improper relationship between educator and student, both second-degree felonies.
At the time, no action was taken by the school other than transferring the students out of Martinez’s classroom.
One Marfa High School graduate and a former district administrator confirmed those complaints. Big Bend Sentinel is not naming those individuals or reporting specifics to protect their privacy.
A probable cause affidavit for Martinez’s arrest alleges the teacher fondled a 13-year-old girl, on her thighs, buttocks and breasts, and the affidavit noted there is video of one of the incidents. Martinez is in the Presidio County Jail with a $170,000 bond.
Both the student and administrator said their prior complaints centered around photos that welding teacher Martinez showed the girls in class — pictures of women on his phone, accompanied by lewd comments from him. “They were all really young girls in the photos,” the former student said.
The student wasn’t sure, but she believed the photos were on a dating app, and Martinez would say things like, “Oh, she’s pretty. That’s my girl. I’m gonna go on a date with her.’ Then he’d get more excited … and then he would say other nasty stuff like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m gonna take her to my bed.’ It’s stuff you shouldn’t be telling your students, right? It got to a point where it made me and my classmates feel uncomfortable.”
Once the girls reported the incidents to an administrator, other administrators were also consulted to assess what action should be taken, the former administrator said. It was agreed among them that while Martinez’s actions were unacceptable, they didn’t appear to be illegal or at a level that would require reporting it to the police or trying to terminate him.
Not terminating Martinez was a blow to the girls, the former student said. “So, we’re like, okay, something’s gonna happen,” she said. “Nothing happened. All they did was just take us out of that class. And it was like a situation where we felt very helpless because this man had been saying these side comments and these things. And then when we said something, they literally only took us out of that class when they could have handled it way differently.”
The former administrator said they did speak to Martinez to let him know that it was inappropriate behavior and would not be tolerated, and then removed the complaining girls from the class.
Martinez’s arrest comes on the heels of another district teacher arrested last month for improper relationship with a student.
In a statement to parents and the community last Wednesday, Interim Superintendent Arturo Alferez stated that MISD will be retraining its staff on the topic of sexual harassment in schools, including “inappropriate workplace behaviors and relationships.” A list of action items — including the zero-tolerance “campaign” and staff training — also lists optional training for students on “what inappropriate behavior looks like,” a clear reporting path and guidance materials for parents. He also noted the community’s voice will be heard on the arrests, and the district scheduled an “Open Forum” with Alferez on Monday from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Gregg Auditorium at Marfa High School.
Alferez said in the statement that the district was in the process of terminating Martinez. It appears Martinez came to the district in 2020. He had a career and technical education certificate at some point before, but it expired in 2019, according to state records. Martinez, a lifelong musician, also taught a popular conjunto class that brought a music program back to the school after years without a band.
