What to Know
- Officials continue their investigation and believe there may be more victims in the case.
A middle school teacher was arrested after two girls claimed he touched them inappropriately – including one student’s claim that he readjusted her bra.
NBC affiliate WFLA-TV reports that deputies in Sarasota County arrested 34-year-old Maxwell Guss and charged him with two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct.
During a Monday press conference, a spokeswoman for the Sarasota Police Department said the arrest concludes a two-month investigation after the students from Brookside Middle School claimed that Guss acted inappropriately – with one claiming he pulled on her bra and said to tighten it while the second said he touched her inappropriately.
Guss, who had been on paid leave since the September claims and was both a business teacher and volleyball coach at the school, had previous been accused of similar conduct at a high school he taught at.
School board officials say they have no record of the accusation, but say a complaint had been filed that he hit a student in the head and told her to remove her hooded sweatshirt.
Officials continue their investigation and believe there may be more victims in the case.
