Former girls gymnastic coach Oscar Olea was warned “several times” not to be alone with students in classes he taught at Key Biscayne Community Church shortly before the pandemic, a pastor told the Independent.
He was also told to stop playing a song with promiscuous lyrics during classes.
Olea, who surrendered last week on a warrant accusing him of sexual battery on children 12 years or older, taught classes at Key Biscayne Community Church and Key Biscayne Presbyterian School on the campus of Crossbridge Church.
Olea also taught classes at the Community Center, as well as the Village Green. He ran FlipOut Workout until a police investigation last fall into allegations of inappropriate touching of two students, ages 4 and 7, but was not charged .
READ: Olea turned from big brother to sexual predator, arrest warrants allege
The new charges stem from two women coming forward in January about being lured into a sexual relationship by Olea when they were teens more than a decade ago.
Tony Goudie, who served as youth pastor at the Community Church at the time, recalls one incident where he saw Olea alone with a teen girl who was serving as an assistant coach.
“He was giving one of his high school student aides like a massage on her lower back,” Goudie said. “It was just them two in the room.”
Goudie called two church staffers to witness the massage, as well. He took their concerns to Rev. Dennis Eastling.
“We talked to him (Olea) about that. We told him that was not something that would be allowed for various reasons,” said Goudie, who is now the youth pastor at Crossbridge Church. “To protect him and us, he was not able to be alone in any capacity with female or male students.”
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Eastling said he didn’t recall the complaint about Olea giving a teen assistant a massage but said Olea “was advised – I know several times – about the importance of having another worker there instead of him being there by himself.”
Olea taught church classes around 2019 and 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Children who attended the gymnastic class through the church were between 6 to 10 years of age, Eastling said.
Goudie also recalled that Olea had to be spoken to about playing a sexually explicit song during classes. Eastling does remember that talk with Olea.
“There was a song that he was playing during one of the practices that had some very promiscuous wording,” Eastling said. “And when that was pointed out to me, I talked with Oscar and said that type of music would not be allowed here at the church.”
Olea also conducted classes for at least four years at Key Biscayne Presbyterian School, which teaches pre-k to first grade. Director Anne Rothe said Olea conducted the classes in the breeze way where school pick-up occurred in the afternoon.
Olea was part of the after-school programming, also right before the pandemic shutdown, Rothe said. “It was just the best space for him to be. We didn’t know anything about any of this back then,” she said.
Eastling said Olea gave him no reason to suspect ill intention, seeing him as quiet and somewhat introverted.
“I can remember helping him, you know, loading the big mats and all that kind of stuff in his trunk,” Eastling said. “We always had a really good relationship. And you know, I never, I never really knew him other than that.”
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JOHN PACENTI is the executive editor of the Key Biscayne Independent. John has worked for The Associated Press, the Palm Beach Post, Daily Business Review, and WPTV-TV.