Florida Teacher Sexted 13-Year-Old, Sent Him McDonald's: Cops
00:00Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now.Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.A former gym teacher spent Thanksgiving in jail accused of sexting a boy who was barely a teenager,implying him with DoorDash orders of McDonald's.I'll take you through what detectives said Yasmar Ramos Figueroa did and how her alleged actions were discovered.Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.Yesmar Ramos Figueroa, she's just 22 years old, and she is accused of two felonies involving a 13-year-old boy.Ramos Figueroa was a gym teacher at Central Point Christian Academy.
00:51That's a private school in Kissimmee, Florida, about 25 miles south of Orlando.Ramos Figueroa was a P.E. teacher at the school until this past October. That's when detectives with the Osceola County Sheriff's Office say a boy's mother was told during a parent-teacher conference that there were concerns that her son and Ramos Figueroa were having some type of relationship.Detectives say the 13-year-old boy's mother confronted him and he told her that he and Ramos Figueroa had been talking since August, but nothing physically sexual had taken place.The boy said they had sent messages back and forth.This was reported to the sheriff's office in October, and the boy's mother gave her son's phone to the detectives to download.Here's a brief sample of what the detectives say Ramos Figueroa sent to the teen beginning in late September.The truth is that I do like you.The next message says, how do I not like you when I talk to you all day?
01:51I be with you all the time like what?Another message said,Love you with a lot of ewes on the end.On September 27th, Detective said Yesmar wrote to the teen,Como Estas?I missed you, again with all those ewes on the end.Another on the same date read,I don't know.
02:10I'd just be thinking about you a lot,Day two, Kara, just you.And then she wrote,You're welcome, I love you too.Now I'll get to what else,detective said.They found on Ramos Figueroa's phone in a bit,but first, I want to tell you a little bit more about what detectives said they found on the boy's phone.
02:29The detective said the boy had been sharing his location with Ramos Figueroa, but then it was turned off.Detectives wrote in an affidavit.Yasmar then began texting the boy, asking why he turned the location detection off and eventually sent a message of the following.I just got home. I don't know what's wrong with you. You turned your location off. You didn't even answer me,nothing, but I just want you to know that I love you, that I am absolutely sorry about anythingthat I did to you. I regret what I did because that literally made me ruin all of the goodwe could have. I know it seems like I don't know about us and about anything, but I promise youthat I do. You mean more than you think to me. Yes, I broke a promise to you, and I know it'll be
03:17hard to believe after that, and I understand that. But I want you to know that I'm sorry for real,It won't happen again, and I'm not going to just say it.I'm a show you it, but anyways, I just thought I should let you know this.Hope you have a good night.Love you.Detective said they found photos of Yasmar Ramos Figueroa on the teen's phone.Detective said one of the photos showed a person sitting while wearing a red hoodie and black string underwear.The hoodie is lifted, and the lower part of the breasts are exposed.
03:49The picture is taken of the reflection in a vanity mirror.Another photo showed a person sitting while wearing tan, string, thong underwear, and a black top.The photo was taken from above with the focus of the photo on the buttocks.There were two other photos that detectives described.One showed a person wearing pink underwear and white shirt, which is raised in exposing the lower part of one of her breasts.The picture is taken of the reflection in a vanity mirror.This appears to be the same vanity mirror from Picture 1. However, the lights are illuminated in themirror. And the fourth photo showed a person wearing a yellow thong, underwear, and a white top,
04:29the picture exposing the buttocks, which is the focus of the picture. Now, all of this,prompted detectives, of course, to interview the 13-year-old boy. Detectives said the teen toldthem, it began after normal school hours while he was alone in the classroom with his PE teacherYasmar Ramos Figueroa. The boy advised his teacher was looking at her TikTok, so the boyshowed her his TikTok and later that evening, she requested to be his friend. The boy advised that hereached out to her and said, hi, miss, and she responded back. Yasmar then asked the boy for his phonenumber, but instead of providing it to her, he asked for hers. The two of them began textingback and forth. The boy advised that he thinks the teacher thought they were in the talking stage,
05:15but he was just playing along with her. The boy stated she would say, I love you, and he wouldsometimes say it back. He did say that when he wouldn't reply back, leaving her on reed, she wouldask why he wouldn't say it back to her. Now, the detective said the boy told them that RamosFigueroa sent him a naked photo of herself to him, but denied that he sent any to her. The detectivewrote in the affidavit. The boy advised that they would face time with each other and that she wouldbe in her bedroom and her bra and underwear. When I asked about photos, he advised that she sent aphotograph where she was completely naked. He believes this photograph was taken in the bathroom. Hedenied sending any pictures to her. The boy also mentioned Yesmar would ask if he was hungry
06:00and would doodash McDonald's to his residence for him. There was another time she sent him $30 viacash app. Now, when Yesmar Ramos Figueroa was approached by school officials in early October,they were obviously suspicious about her relationship with this boy. According to detectives,Yesmar Ramos Figueroa texted the boy. No, listen, like for real, I need you to know that I do care and I do like you. I don't know how many more times I got to tell you or WTF. I got to be honest. I don't want to keep with the BS that you think I'm just playing with you or wasting your time. She then said, they just asked me again the same thing and brought HR and she explains HR means human resources. She then writes, they part of like theadministrative staff when things happen and whatever, obviously she's explaining to this boy whatHR is. On October 3rd, Ramos Figueroa told the boy, just stick with your story and don't changeanything. If you've ever suffered from intrusive thoughts like unwanted violent images or suddenout-of-character urges, then you know they can be scarier than any true crime case. For people with
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07:59for more than 155 million Americans. Visit nocd.com to book a free call and get connected tosomeone who can help you. So to discuss these allegations, let's bring in Dan Shore. He's a formersex crimes prosecutor and also the author of the novel Open Bar. It's about teachers whocommit sex crimes and academic institutions. Thanks so much, Dan, for joining me. Talk to me,if you would, your first thoughts on what we're reading in this probable cause affidavit for thearrest warrant. You know, it's another one of these cases. And in one of these cases, and inWhat struck me was how young Yasmar Ramo's Figueroa is. She's 22 years old, a PE teacher. You got to think this is her first job.Right. It's a really disturbing fact pattern that's laid out in the arrest warrant. The boy, who is the alleged victim here, is only 13 when she's engaging in this activity with him. And we see a lot of patterns that we see in a lot of cases that this isn't an isolated incident, according to law enforcement, that there's a pattern of grooming.
09:07involving electronic messages and images being exchanged and that this was going on for someperiod of time. Also, like in many of these cases, it was discovered by a parent of this boy, and that'show it was reported. That's often how these cases come to light that another person noticeswhat's happening and decides to report it to the school or law enforcement. And it's concerningbecause this 13-year-old is experiencing a lot of inappropriate, abusive interactions with this teacher,yes, she's young, but she's 22, so she's over the age of consent. She is a teacher. She'san authority figure, which makes it even worse. What kills me about this is the McDonald's part.You know, I read this whole thing about how she would ask him if he was hungry and she would
09:55door dash McDonald's to his house. I mean, it's so wild. And she is apparently, allegedly,this is the allegation sending him money on cash app i mean this is like the like 21st centuryversion of somebody luring a kid you know to the car with candy or something like that and this isthis is worse because she's accused of doing this in a school setting and she's plying himwith mcdonald's money on cash app and then she's like oh what do you want for yourbirthday. What do you want for your birthday? And he wants sneakers and he never got the sneakers. But still, I mean, Dan, I mean, unbelievable.Right. It's very disturbing to read all of that and how thought out this was. And we see this pattern a lot where there are gifts given to someone who an older person is trying to groom, trying to get them to trust them, to feel an affinity towards them. Gifts also can help isolate someone away from other people because they become dependent on the older person. And as you were just saying, this is a new version of this in terms of the technology being used. It's no longer just in-person gifts. There's nowCash app and DoorDash, and there's so much electronic, there's a lot of electronic communications
11:18between them. So this is how a lot of the grooming occurs with sex abuse cases that we seenowadays that I investigate in my work. The text messages are somewhat unbelievable. I mean,it's bad enough that we're talking about, you know, the images that she's accused of distributing,you know, the photographs, and the descriptions of the photos and the videos are quite vivid.And so we know that she was sending scantily clad images of herself to this teenage boy from the affidavit, from the phone dump that they got.But the text messages are right there in black and white.You know, I love you.I'll wait for you.
12:02You know, and it goes on and on and on.And, you know, the boy tells the cops, you know, yeah, I would say I love you back and things like that.He's 13.I mean, he's a 13-year-old boy.I mean, a 13-year-old boy can't consent to any of this.Right.And it's clearly this teacher is trying to show this boy that she cares for him.Now, whether that's true or not, we don't know.
12:28But that is textbook grooming to show that we have a special relationship,and I'm there for you, and I love you,and it makes the younger person trust them and be less likely to report them.it also shows a brazenness on the part of this teacher because to do all this electronicallyto have these messages that are discoverable by law enforcement that this boy can also sharewith other people because we've had other cases where they've done that that is very brazenbecause it's easy to be caught and this teacher is trusting her life her career and herfreedom because now she's arrested with this 13 year old boy that he's going to keep a secret
13:07what she's doing. So that is definitely something that was very poor judgment to say the least onher part, not to mention all the scarring that this is going to leave on this 13-year-old boyto have this introduction to relationships and sexuality through this highly inappropriateabusive relationship with an authority figure who's his teacher.One thing that was refreshing and reassuring to me is that apparently the school waskind of suspicious. It sounds like they were definitely suspicious about what was going onbecause they went to meet with her. And it sounds like they were kind of concernedthat there was, even before mom, you know, was reporting this to the sheriff's office,
13:55they were concerned that this teacher was getting a little too close to this boy. So therewere signs. And it talks about, you know, the boy saying we would only engage with like side hug,and stuff like that, but I just don't think that's appropriate at all.You know, it depends.Like, you know, it's all in what kind of side hug it is, you know.It depends on, like, the nature of it.You can tell the difference between a side hug that's, like, just like a little, you know,reassuring type thing and something that's a little too close, you know.
14:34So I think that the school officials, it was a reassuring.assuring to me and refreshing to me that they were seeing signs, and they brought her in,it said on October 1st or 2nd, there are the text messages.And she knows full well what she's doing is wrong, according to the text messages,because she's like, they brought in HR, and she has to explain to this kid that HR is humanresources, and that that's what happens when you're going to get in trouble.And she's telling, you know, but what grosses me out as a mom and is like a huge,human being. Stick to your story. Well, this is the difference between schools that handle this
15:14effectively in schools that don't. I'm a former sex crime as prosecutor right now, investigatesexual misconduct for schools. And I wrote about this in my novel Open Bar that often thereare occasions where people see boundary blurring behavior in organizations, especially in educationalinstitutions. And because it's not explicitly sexual or clearly sexual, people will ignore it andnot say anything. And almost always when you see abuse, sexual abuse of a younger personby an authority figure by a teacher, there's some precursor activity before sexual interactions,which is the boundary blurring, touching language, things that aren't clearly prohibited byschool policy but are very, very concerning. And the schools that are responsible step in at that
15:58point to intervene and head off or try to head off more egregious misconduct. And they alsohave a culture and a climate in the school where people are encouraged to report things thatthey see like this. So here they did take action. But tragically, we've seen so manyorganizations, especially schools, who have seen things like this and said, well, it's notexplicit. It's not extremely clear. We're just going to back off and see if something worse developsand many times it does develop in a much more horrendous way. So schools need to step in earlierwhen they see this kind of boundary-blurring behavior before it gets worse.Are you concerned that possibly there was another line crossed into the physical?
16:36I mean, the boy was pretty adamant with the law enforcement that nothing physically sexual everhappened.But could he just not be revealing that?I mean, she's sending DoorDash to his house, sending him money on cash app, things of that nature.or are you confident that maybe it didn't get to that point?Well, we have no evidence that there was a physical relationship.Could it have happened?Sure, we just don't know.
17:04But law enforcement certainly has to move only on evidence that they have.The messages don't show conversations about physical interactions.The boy here, the victim is not talking, not saying, he's saying that there was not physical interactions.Well, we may not know if he's being truthful about that.But certainly there's no evidence.to go forward from law enforcement's perspective, if they don't have any basis for that.I've also seen a lot of abusive situations like this where it's not physical, but it iselectronic, there's photos, there's videos, there's gifts, and that could be very manipulative
17:39and damaging also. So we see that many times even though there's not physical sexual activity.Well, Dan, I don't know about you, but I am reassured and really thankful that the schooltook immediate action because they fired her. I mean, that's what it says in thepolice report these schools they don't comment on personal al issues and all this stuff but i mean theyfired her and that's great because they did not wait um they did not let this fester and she's 22 yearsold so so we don't know how long she was working at the school but you can't be a teacher for verylong um you know at 22 years old so thank goodness she wasn't in the system all that long andWould you be shocked, though, if something more comes out of this, if possibly other victims come forward?
18:32We have no evidence of that, but I know in other cases I've investigated, often there is a pattern of misconduct that sometimes, sometimes when someone is publicly charged with a crime like this, that may be able, that may embolden other people to come forward who weren't coming forward before.But we've no evidence of other people right now.She is innocent of proven guilty.but certainly the electronic evidence, the photos, the text messages show a very, very inappropriatesexualized relationship, even if it's not physical, with this boy who's only 13 while she'sin her 20s. So that's very concerning. And I'm sure law enforcement's going to further investigateto see if there are other people who might have more information or might have had inappropriateinteractions in this situation. Yeah, I'm sure they will be investigating as well. I'm just glad that, you know,
19:22this boy's mother took action, the school took action, and let's hope that nothing more actuallyhappened here. Because as you mentioned, he will be scarred by this because it's bad what theydetailed. Dan Shore, thank you so much. Thanks for having me on. It's good to talk with you.So as I told you at the very beginning, Yesmar Ramos Figueroa spent Thanksgiving weekend in jail,but a judge has set her bail at $5,000.on each charge. She has a private attorney and one of the conditions of her bail is that she nothave any access to the internet and she is not allowed to have any contact with the teenage boyin this case. So stay tuned. We'll stay on top of any developments for you. That's it for this
20:08episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back herenext time.
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