University of Oklahoma suspends student charged with molestation

OU also “issued a trespass order barring Mr. Flores from university grounds,” said Catherine Bishop, OU's vice president for public affairs.

As part of Flores' participation in OU's teacher education program, he took part in a pre-teaching practicum that involved observing instruction in a classroom at Moore's Heritage Trails Elementary School, officials said.

Flores was removed from that program when OU suspended him, said Robert Romines, Moore's assistant superintendent for personnel.

Romines said school officials have no indication any Heritage Trails students were mistreated. He said school officials contacted parents of students in the classroom Flores observed and also notified Moore police.

Charges are filed

Flores was charged Feb. 13 with lewd molestation after a relative complained Flores had molested her 9-year-old son. Flores, 30, of Norman, admitted touching the boy improperly three times, a Norman police detective reported.

Flores worked as a teacher's aide in a classroom for children with special needs at Norman Public Schools from 2001 until the spring of 2010, when he resigned. He was not an OU student during that time.

Following his arrest, some parents accused Norman police and school officials of failing to respond properly to earlier complaints of violent and inappropriate conduct by Flores. Parents said they made the complaints over a span of more than a decade.

Flores' father is a Norman policeman, the parents said.