Miami-Dade private school ignored signs of predatory security guard: lawsuit

Education admin June 13, 2026 0 Comments

Miami-Dade private school ignored signs of predatory security guard: lawsuit

A 17-year-old girl has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after being sexually assaulted by a security guard at her Miami-Dade private school, according to a lawsuit filed last month in which her family is seeking $20 million in damages from the school and its security company.

The teen began attending My Life My Power Alpha International Preparatory Academy in January. The girl’s mother enrolled her in the school after she had a dip in her grades and needed to bring up her credits to ensure she could graduate on time, she said in an interview with the Miami Herald. The school has campuses in Liberty City and Cutler Bay.

“The school was referred through a principal at her actual home school, so I had trust in the staff, the teachers, and everyone there,” said the girl’s mother, whom the Herald is not naming in order to protect the identity of the teen.

According to the lawsuit, the teen was immediately warned by students about Slyvester James, a 24-year-old uniformed security officer at the school, because of his “inappropriate and predatory behavior toward female students.”

She heeded those warnings initially, according to the lawsuit, but James engaged in a “calculated pattern of grooming behavior” focused on her. He repeatedly approached her, gave her his phone number and sent her intimate texts, the lawsuit says.

He complimented her outfits and became jealous when she talked with boys, the complaint reads.

Together, those messages created “artificial emotional intimacy” and made “a vulnerable minor feel singled out and valued by an older male authority figure,” the lawsuit said. The alleged “grooming campaign” escalated to the point where the girl snuck out of her home and rode with James in his car.

Then, James engaged in a sexual act with the 17-year-old.

The girl was “was alone, seventeen years old, in a dark vehicle at night with an adult male who had cultivated weeks of emotional control over her and who was displaying anger,” the complaint reads.

The teen’s aunt, whom her mother describes as like a second mom to her daughter, said she could immediately tell something was wrong and went straight to law enforcement after learning what happened to her niece.

James has since been charged by the State Attorney’s Office with a first-degree felony in committing unlawful sexual activity with a specified minor as an authority figure and offenses against students by an authority figure. He has pleaded not guilty.

The lawsuit, filed on May 26, names James, My Life My Power Alpha International Preparatory Academy, its parent company Foundation Academies and Whitelight Security as defendants in a case alleging sexual battery on behalf of James and “institutional negligence and a betrayal of trust” on behalf of the school and security company.

The complaint argues that the school and security company should have known about James’ inappropriate behavior as it was “common knowledge among the student body” and that they failed to protect the teen.

“This was entirely preventable,” said attorney Bernardo Pimentel II, who represents the family. The “school cannot claim to be protecting children while ignoring the warning signs that place them in danger.”

Neither the school nor the security company responded to the Herald’s requests for comment on Friday. Their attorneys’ information was not available on Miami-Dade County’s Clerk of Courts website, nor was information for James’ attorney.

The teen has been unable to return to school since the alleged assault and is now being homeschooled.

“She has trouble sleeping because she has bad dreams in regards to things that transpired,” the girl’s mother said, adding that she now has suicidal thoughts.

The teen, who has dreams of becoming a lawyer, is “not even the same kid now,” her mother said.

“My daughter’s usually a social butterfly, and she’s been literally isolated in her room ever since this incident. She’s even eating in her room, she doesn’t come out for too much of anything,” the mother said.