Ruiz has been placed on administrative leave from his job teaching pre-kindergarten at Kramer Elementary.
“This is a very serious matter. While we are unable to comment on this personnel issue involving a teacher, we can share that the individual has been placed on administrative leave. We will continue to cooperate with authorities, and remain committed to providing a safe instructional environment for our students each day," the district said in a statement.
According to DPD, a teenage girl came forward three days ago and accused Ruiz of sexually abusing her eight years ago when she was a student at Kramer. This week, another young woman came forward to make similar accusations against Ruiz, who was charged with the additional crime of indecency of a child with contact, a second-degree felony.
Last October, Ruiz, who has no prior arrest record according to DPD, was highlighted by KERA in a feature about bilingual pre-K education.
Jorge Ruiz, a pre-K teacher at Arthur Kramer Elementary in Dallas ISD, faces challenges when he starts the school year.DPD Assistant Chief Christina Smith said that the DPD believes that Ruiz could have had more than two victims during his more than 10 years teaching at the school.
“When they come, the first day of school, there’s a silent period for most of them,” Ruiz says. “So they’re very shy. They are not very sure of what they’re going to say and they don’t have the vocabulary to say what they want to say.”
To get them past that hurdle, Ruiz has his pre-K bilingual students learn six new words every day.
At school recently, Ruiz told his students to raise their hands if they could complete a sentence about the photo of a bear he was holding up.
He called on 4-year-old Jimena. "El oso es café," she says in Spanish. (The bear is brown.)
“Ohhh, I like that. Me gusto mucho,” he responds.
"Currently there are possible additional victims that have come forward and been scheduled for interviews," Smith said.
