Teacher From Bethesda Charged With Sexual Abuse

BETHESDA, MD — A Bethesda man who taught at a Washington, D.C., charter school has been sexual abuse of a teenager who did yard work at the teacher's home, police say. Montgomery County Police on Friday charged Howard Earl Alpert, 73, of Adelaide Drive in Bethesda, with a fourth-degree sex offense and the sexual abuse of a teenage boy.

Alpert was a science teacher at the Washington Latin Public Charter School, but the victim in the case was not a student at the school, school officials said. WTOP cited a letter from the school to parents that said Alpert resigned from the school earlier this week, effective Friday.

In late May, detectives received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by Alpert. In the summer of 2015, the teen began doing paid yard work at Alpert’s home, a job that continued through the end of May 2017. Police say that when the teen came to the home, Alpert would invite him inside to eat and talk, and had inappropriate sexual contact with the victim without the boy’s consent.

Alpert reportedly took photographs of the teen working in the yard and once told him to take off his shirt, and took a photograph of the shirtless youth.

Bond information for Alpert is not available at this time.

Anyone with information about other inappropriate contactAlpert may have had with juveniles is asked to call police at 240-773-5400.
»Photo of Howard Alpert of Bethesda, courtesy of Montgomery County Police