Although the Broward District Schools Police Department's chief of police informed an accused pedophile that his termination had disqualified him from future employment with Broward County Public Schools, the man found a job with a charter school in Broward County and applied for a Florida educator certificate, records released Thursday show.
Broward County Public Schools hired Christopher Falzone when he was a Broward College student in 2008, records show.
His 2014 termination happened after detectives investigated him for allegations that he was sexually harassing girls and sexually abusing a girl at an elementary school.
Falzone, who was accused of fondling a girl at Camp Live Oak in Fort Lauderdale this summer, was working as a substitute teacher in 2013 at Sheridan Hills Elementary School in Hollywood when a group of students who were in the third and fifth grades accused him of fondling them.
The Sheridan Hills student told a police officer Falzone had also fondled her vagina. Falzone, who was 31 years old at the time, accused the girl of having a "very big crush" on him and of being known "to be a liar."
Five years later, the girl's parent said Falzone, now 35, is the liar and his alleged pattern of behavior shows the system failed her daughter.
The parent of the former Sheridan Hills student filed a lawsuit seeking $5 million in damages against Broward County Public Schools.
The parent and the girl reported the incident to the Hollywood Police Department on June 5, 2013, and records show Falzone was notified of a School Board of Broward County probe and of his removal from the substitute teacher list two days later.
The School Board of Broward County terminated Falzone's employment at Sheridan Hills. Falzone also received a letter from the Broward District Schools Police Department Chief informing him that his May 6, 2014 termination disqualified him from future employment with the school district.
Records show Falzone didn't stay away from children in Broward or abandon his plans to become a fulltime certified teacher in Florida after his termination.
Without a criminal record, Charter Schools USA hired Falzone as an intensive math teacher in August 2015, and the Florida Department of Education reviewed his 2016 Florida Educator Certificate application.
His failure to submit information requested rendered his application invalid on February 2017, records show.
Falzone was working at Charter Schools USA's Renaissance Charter School at Cooper City when he was arrested Aug. 13 on one count of lewd and lascivious conduct in the case of the Camp Live Oak victim, and he was released Aug. 16 on a $25,000 bond with an electronic monitor and a house arrest agreement.