It has been a challenging month for Holy Cross of San Antonio, a prestigious Westside Catholic school that has been the focus of recent headlines. One coach faces multiple criminal charges and a state investigation, while the remaining football coaches have been suspended until next season following violations of school and athletic program rules.
An ousted Holy Cross teacher and coach, Armando Flores, 34, was back behind bars on Thursday, October 16, after another felony invasive recording charge was filed. It’s a fate San Antonio Police Department officials said was likely to happen as investigators combed through large amounts of data and videos. He was arrested, booked into the Bexar County Jail in the very early hours of Thursday morning and remained there as of late Thursday afternoon, according to court records.
Flores is accused of placing an unsanctioned hidden camera in his office –one he shared with a female volleyball coach – concealed in the shape of an alarm clock. SAPD Public Information Officer Emily Galvin said school officials, including his office mate who often changed in their shared space, were only made aware of the camera when a student reported it. Flores allegedly told a student who picked up the alarm clock to stop moving his camera.
Armando Flores, 34, was arrested Tuesday night, October 7, after being terminated from his job as a science teacher and coach at Holly Cross of San Antonio. He’s charged with secretly recording his office, including a coworker who was changing. (Courtesy of Dreamland Studios)
That volleyball coach did her own investigation and found more than one image of herself changing on the device’s memory card, according to a warrant obtained by MySA shortly after Flores’ first arrest.
“The victim’s daughter advised the victim that there were many images of the victim changing and described one image of the victim in her sports bra. The victim contacted a faculty member who confirmed that there were no authorized cameras installed in her office,” the warrant states.
While officers first reported at least three students were recorded on the same device, Galvin walked that claim back slightly during a press conference after his first arrest on October 8. However, the SAPD officer said they recovered large amounts of video to comb through and that more charges may be filed. So far, there are two.
Invasive visual recording is a state fail felony, with each charge carrying a jail sentence of 180 days to 2 years. While judges often agree to have any sentences, if the suspect is found guilty, run at the same time, the head of the court can order those sentences to be run one after the other.
According to a public release from Holy Cross of San Antonio, which was obtained by MySA before being deleted from public record, shows Flores was first hired as a middle school science teacher in 2021. Texas Education Agency records show he was first licensed with the state to teach science to students between 4th and 8th grade in 2022 – a license he has kept up to date ever since.
“We are excited to have Mr. Armando Flores ’09 join the Holy Cross Faculty this year where he will be teaching Science to our middle school students,” the deleted post from August of 2021 stated, captioning a photo of the since ousted teacher in front of an informative poster about atoms, elements, molecules and compounds. “In his spare time, he loves watching and attending football games as he is a huge college football fanatic.”
While a TEA spokesperson said there was no report made to the agency about Flores’ alleged conduct – despite new laws ordering private schools to report any misconduct with a student – just a day before his arrest and as police were actively investigating, his certification page now shows he is under investigation by the state agency.
Holy Cross football, volleyball coaches heavily reprimanded for violating rules of the game
Six athletic heads at Holy Cross of San Antonio are prevented from coaching or the rest of the volleyball and football season after allegedly violating Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools bylaws – the agency equivalent of UIL for public schools.
As first reported by San Antonio Express-News, the Catholic school’s athletic director, Angel Cedillo; head football coach, Mike Harrison; and assistant coach, Roy Salas have all been benched for the final three games of the season and have to forfeit any wins they nabbed while using unapproved equipment.
According to the TAPPS sanction and penalties website, the football coaches were dinged for using unsanctioned communication devices between coaches and students during games.
On that same day, October 13, Cedillo, volleyball coaches Melissa Hinojosa and Daniel Hinojosa were suspended from coaching any volleyball players until June of 2027. According to the TAPPS sanctions page, the coaches were caught having trained or coached players in the off-season on non-school teams – another big violation of the TAPPS bylaws.
This article originally published at Coach scandal deepens at prestigious San Antonio Catholic school.