Sheriff: Substitute teacher who admitted to molesting students could have more victims

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson told Channel 9 on Thursday afternoon that there are more potential victims of a fired substitute teacher accused of molesting students.

Both the Osceola County Sheriff's Office and the Kissimmee Police Department are interviewing more alleged victims of Syed Yasseen-Asher, 19.

Yaseen-Asher was charged with nine counts of lewd or lascivious molestation involving six female students at Boggy Creek Elementary School, Gibson said. He said Yasseen-Asher admitted to touching girls at three of the nine schools at which he taught.

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"I know that there has been other victims that have come forward," Gibson said. "So they're dotting their I's and crossing their T's and making sure that we don't leave any stone unturned."

Detectives said Yaseen-Asher told them last week that he inappropriately touched at least five girls at Boggy Creek, Flora Ridge and Mill Creek elementary schools during his three-month stint working for the School District of Osceola County.

Six female Boggy Creek Elementary School students made allegations by Monday after a 7-year-old girl's mother contacted the Sheriff's Office on Feb. 28.

A Kissimmee Police Department spokeswoman told Channel 9 on Thursday that the agency's detectives interviewed four children, but they do not have enough probable cause to file additional charges against Yaseen-Asher.

On Tuesday, Channel 9 requested Yaseen-Asher's personnel file and has asked the school district what classes, grades and how many students he taught.

On Thursday, the school district provided Channel 9 with a list of classes, grades and dates that Yaseen-Asher taught and the number of children in each class.

The district said Yaseen-Asher taught 1,102 students at nine Osceola County schools between December and February. See the full list below:

Boggy Creek Elementary School
- Feb. 21, 2019: Dual language class, 1st grade - 14 students.
- Feb. 28, 2019: Dual language class, 2nd grade - 18 students.

Central Avenue Elementary School
- Jan. 16, 2019: Math and science, 4th grade - 18 students in the morning, 20 students in the afternoon.
- Jan. 23, 2019: 1st grade - 20 students, pre-K lunch and planning - 19 students, KG - 18 students.
- Feb. 6, 2019: 2nd grade - 19 students.
- Feb. 20, 2019: KG - 17 students.

Flora Ridge Elementary School
- Feb. 12, 2019: KG, 21 students.
- Feb. 18, 2019: Math and science, 5th grade - 22 students in the morning, 22 students in the afternoon, six intervention students.

Ventura Elementary School
- Feb. 14, 2019: Music, K-5 grades - 107 students.

Pleasant Hill Elementary School
- Jan. 22, 2019: 5th grade - 18 students in the morning, 22 students in the afternoon, 6 triple I students.
- Feb. 8, 2019: 1st grade - 18 students.

Kissimmee Middle School
- Dec. 18, 2018: STEM Engineering, 6, 7, 8 grades - 137 students.
- Dec. 20, 2018: Math, 7th grade - 101 students.
- Jan. 11, 2019: Band/chorus, 6, 7, 8 grades - 134 students.
- Feb. 1, 2019: Intensive reading, 8th grades - 107 students.

Kissimmee Elementary School
- Jan. 18, 2019: Science and language arts, 5th grade - 63 students.

Parkway Middle School
- Jan. 15, 2019: English language arts, 6th grade - 134 students.

Mill Creek Elementary School
- Jan. 9, 2019: 1st grade - 21 students.

The aunt of an alleged victim told Channel 9 on Thursday evening that her 6-year-old niece was victimized at Boggy Creek Elementary School.

"She said, 'Yes, I do know him.' She said that he had acted weird with her," said the girl's aunt, who asked to not be identified. "She felt like she did something wrong, and we just had to explain it to her that it wasn't her fault."

The school district said it knew on March 1, the day after the first alleged victim came forward, that Yaseen-Asher was a substitute teacher at eight other schools. But it took the district four days to make automated phone calls notifying parents of students at those schools about the incidents.

The district said Wednesday that parents of children who were taught by Yaseen-Asher would receive personal phone calls from their student's school principal, but on Thursday, the district said only 201 elementary school parents received personal phone calls Tuesday.

"I'd like to make a point that my sister still hasn't been contacted by the school board or the school," the alleged victim's aunt said. "Someone should have been working through the weekend to contact all of these families."

Yaseen-Asher's personnel file, which was released Thursday, said he worked as an assistant teacher at Kissimmee's Islamic Center of Osceola County since June.

It said that he is an Indian citizen who is living in the country on a visa and that he graduated from Winter Garden's West Orange High School last year.

The file said he passed the district's background checks.

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