Gainesville assistant principal arrested on child neglect charges, week after former teacher's arrest: Police
Photo shows mugshot of Ryan Clemens | Credit: Alachua County Jail
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - A Gainesville assistant principal is facing child neglect charges nearly a week after a former teacher at the same school was arrested for inappropriately touching students, police said.
Ryan Clemens, 41, an assistant principal of St. Patrick Interparish School, was arrested on charges of child neglect and tampering with evidence on Wednesday, according to a Facebook post.
Clemens had reportedly received a report of inappropriate behavior by the school's PE teacher, Christopher Chell, toward a female student.
Clemens held a closed-door meeting between himself, the victim, and Chell, police said.
Photo shows mugshot of Christopher Chell, a 46-year-old Gainesville-area teacher accused of inappropriately touching middle school girls | Credit: Alachua County Jail
The investigation revealed that Clemens sided with Chells and disregarded the victim's report.
The assistant principal closed the incident, but days later reported it to the Florida Department of Child and Families (DCF) - minimizing it, police said.
Days later, a teacher and a group of students separately reported similar incidents regarding Chell's inappropriate behavior.
Clemens allegedly failed to protect the students from Chells by not submitting any additional reports to DCF or law enforcement, police said.
A statement from the school said:
"The diocese, along with its school officials, continues to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation. To avoid interfering with the case, the diocese has no further comments at this time."
According to the school, Chells was removed as a teacher and coach while Clemens is currently under review.
Detectives believe there are more victims in this case and ask anyone with information to come forward by calling Sgt Pandak at 352-393-7734.