A Stamford, CT father officially earned the worst class trip chaperone ever award, after pleading guilty to molesting young girls while chaperoning his son's class trip to NYC in June. According to prosecutors, Tomas Manzano, 35, was horribly inappropriate towards the fifth grade girls, "He caressed their faces.. he tickled some of the children close to their privates."
Manzano was one of 40 chaperones accompanying almost 100 fifth graders from Stillmeadow Elementary to the city, where the children and adults were seeing the sights on a double-decker bus. Back in June, Principal Michael Sander told the Stamford Advocate that he spoke with Manzano "about lemurs, coffee, the men's restroom, 'normal stuff' during the first stop, at Central Park Zoo, but then Manzano "had a significant change in behavior"—perhaps related to the fact that Manzano's water bottle was actually filled vodka—which prompted two teachers to confront him.
Then a student told Sanders about some upset girls on the lower level of the bus. When the bus pulled up to Mars 2112 in Midtown, Sanders, a female teacher and a female chaperone found out that Manzano had been touching the girls and saying things like, "You're so pretty - you should date my son so I can see you." They called the police, but Manzano was belligerent and it took eight cops to restrain him.
Manzano had been a clerical worker at a law firm until he was laid off. His lawyer said, "He's very sorry about what happened. He's gotten counseling, he's picking up the pieces and moving forward." He is expected to be sentenced to six months in prison next month (he's already served five) and will have to register as a sex offender. The plea spares the children from testifying.
