‘Nationally-recognized’ teacher arrested in Fort Lauderdale for sex assault on minor after Tinder meet

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A teacher who has worked in schools in Miami-Dade and Broward and who received a presidential award is facing charges in Broward County Court for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy who went on to write a college entry essay about it in school, police said.

Fort Lauderdale police officers arrested Carlos Montero, 46, on Oct. 3, Broward Sheriff’s Office corrections records show. The case started in Connecticut after a school counselor’s report, police said. Faced with the evidence, Montero surrendered to FLPD, police said.

Montero, who was born in Texas but lives in Fort Lauderdale, is accused of using Tinder to meet the teenage boy from Connecticut for sex in South Florida and to continue to communicate with the teen about sex on Snapchat.

The teenage boy was in Miami-Dade County on vacation with his mother in April 2021 to visit a relative in Golden Beach, according to the arrest form. The teen told police he identified himself as an 18-year-old on Tinder, but he “definitely” told Montero later that he was a minor.

The teen allegedly told his friends and when he started to feel “depressed” about it, he mentioned it to Montero, who allegedly told him the sexual encounter was “consensual” and that if he revealed it he “could get in trouble and lose his job.”

In 2015, NSU University School in Davie identified Montero as a teacher in honors and AP chemistry for students in grades 9-12 and praised him for being among the 108 mathematics and science teachers nationwide who former President Barack Obama honored with the presidential award for excellence.

In 2018, Scheck Hillel Community School in North Miami Beach announced trusting Montero, as a “nationally-recognized science educator” to teach students in grades 6-12 as the Science Department Chair and physics teacher after leaving NSU University School where he also served as a department chair.

Detectives have evidence of the communication between the teenage boy and Montero, according to the arrest report.

Montero is facing charges of sexual assault on a minor, obscene communication use of a computer to seduce or solicit or lure a child, buying or selling minor information for sex purposes, and traveling to meet after using a computer to lure a child, records show.

Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.


About the Authors:

Bridgette Matter joined the Local 10 News team as a reporter in July 2021. Before moving to South Florida, she began her career in South Bend, Indiana and spent six years in Jacksonville as a reporter and weekend anchor.

The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.