A man is accused of inappropriately touching a young girl at a school, according to a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.
Anthony Guadalupe, 18, is facing a charge of lewd and lascivious behavior on a victim younger than 12 years old, according to the SJSO arrest report.
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Deputies said the director of the school alerted the Florida Department of Children and Families about the reported incident, which happened near the end of the school day on Monday, July 18.
SJSO responded to the school and met with the parents on Tuesday. The girl’s father said that when he picked her up on Monday evening, he saw her “pulling her underwear back up to cover her private area,” the arrest report said.
The father learned that Guadalupe, an employee at the school, had put a toy in the girl’s underwear and he went back inside the school and asked to review video from the classroom.
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According to the arrest report, video footage showed the child on Guadalupe’s lap at one point. The child was then standing in front of Guadalupe facing away from him and on the video he was “observed lifting the back of” the child’s dress several times and appeared “to be touching his groin area” while he had her dress lifted up, the arrest report said.
Action News Jax has confirmed that the alleged incident happened at Chappell Schools’ Longleaf campus. The school has released the following statement:
“At Chappell Schools, our top priority is the safety and wellbeing of the children in our care. Upon learning of a former employee’s alleged inappropriate actions with a student on July 18th, we immediately took steps to ensure the staff member did not have access to the school, both state and local authorities were notified, and the St. John’s County Sheriff’s office arrested the former employee. We will continue to fully cooperate with all appropriate agencies as they conduct their investigations. As this is an on-going investigation, we cannot comment further, but as we have additional information, we are able to share, we will be as transparent as possible and provide updates in a timely manner.”
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Guadalupe was arrested on Tuesday night and booked into the St. Johns County Jail on a $100,000 bond. He was released from jail on Wednesday night.
Action News Jax’s Nick Gibson is working to get more information on the investigation and will have the latest on CBS47 and FOX30 Action News Jax.
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