ROYAL PALM BEACH, Florida – A Palm Beach County professor and instructor in the Navy JROTC is in jail after police said he tried to maintain a sexual and romantic relationship with a student.
According to an arrest report, Israel Gonzalez, 56, teaches at the Royal Palm Beach Community High School.
An 18-year-old student said Gonzalez, whom she calls “boss”, made inappropriate comments for her on February 2, while the two were alone in a classroom.
“Gonzalez asked if she could keep a secret, and when she said yes, he asked if she would like to be with him,” said the arrest report.
The teenager told the police that he answered no and asked Gonzalez why he would say that.
“He said, ‘You are a young and intelligent teenager, you speak eloquently and you present yourself as a lady, not as an 18-year-old’,” according to the prison report. “Fearing that he would do something to her, she said she left the classroom.”
After reporting the incident to the Palm Beach School Police Department, the teenager participated in a “controlled call” with Gonzalez on February 3, overheard by a police officer.
Police said the teenager told Gonzalez “she was nervous because she never did anything like anyone”, to which Gonzalez replied “he couldn’t stop thinking about it”.
The teenager asked, “‘All you want to do is kiss … right?’ and Gonzalez replies, ‘Yes’, “said the arrest report.
Gonzalez then called the girl “the most interesting” on the school’s Navy JROTC program.
The teenager “told Gonzalez that she fears that kissing will lead to sex because it can get intense and lead to foreplay,” according to the prison report.
Gonzalez said “if she is willing to do that, not the sex stuff, but the kisses, that would be her decision, but if you and I start dating, we like it, we like it.”
The police said that as the call continued, “Gonzalez explained in graphic detail what he wanted to do with her sexually” and that “he just wanted to kiss her at first to see how she would react”.
Gonzalez ended the call by saying “he would be open to further meetings with her”.
Gonzalez was arrested on Thursday at the Royal Palm Beach Community High School and arrested at Palm Beach County Jail on charges of an official who requested or engaged in obscene conduct with a student. He has since called.
WPTV contacted the Palm Beach County School District Public Records Department for more information about Gonzalez’s status as a teacher, but we have yet to respond.