Former Roswell Teacher Pleads Guilty To Raping Student, Gets 10 Years

ROSWELL, GA — A former Roswell charter school teacher pleaded guilty earlier this month to rape and child molestation, according to police.

Robert Vandel, 64, pleaded guilty on May 6 in Fulton County Superior Court to charges of Rape, Aggravated Child Molestation, False Imprisonment, and two counts of Child Molestation. Vandel was sentenced to 10 years in prison with no eligibility for parole, police said.

Vandel was employed as a science teacher at Fulton Academy of Science and Technology (FAST) Charter School in Roswell at the time of the assault, and the victim was a student in his class, police said. On August 31, 2021, the Roswell police department began an investigation into the sexual assault of a child that had been reported to have taken place in early 2020.

Two days after the investigation opened, police arrested Vandel on a number of sexual assault charges. Roswell detectives, along with the Holly Springs Police Department and Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, took Vandel into custody on September 2, 2021, at the Lyndon Academy in Holly Springs, where he was employed at the time of his arrest, police said.

Vandel’s sentencing includes life on probation and the sex offender registry. He will not be allowed any unsupervised contact with minors, no contact with the victims or their families, and will never be able to serve in a capacity where he will have access to children, police said.

The plea agreement was reached as a result of collaborative conversations between the District Attorney’s office, the victims, and their families, according to Roswell police. The decision was ultimately driven by a mutually-shared goal of sparing two children the re-traumatization of a lengthy criminal trial, and preventing any further trauma and intrusion into their lives, police said.

Vandel now faces additional criminal charges through Cherokee County.