Chris Bonanno

FLORIDA TODAY

A Brevard Public Schools principal arrested Friday in connection with a federal child-pornography investigation had been reprimanded as a teacher in 1999 over "inappropriate professional behavior and poor judgment'' and ordered to have no solo contact with a then-6-year-old boy, officials said Friday (June 3).

Ricky Delano Sheppard of Melbourne, 59, was arrested Friday by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations Task Force. A Brevard Public Schools employee since 1981, Sheppard was most recently the principal of Spessard Holland Elementary.

He was relieved of his duties on Friday, and BPS Superintendent Desmond Blackburn said he would seek to have him permanently removed.

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According to a statement from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, Sheppard's Melbourne home was searched on Friday, as part of the investigation. Following his arrest, he was taken into federal custody in Orlando.

"Sheppard's arrest was the result of a child pornography investigation which led to a federal search warrant being executed at his residence," said Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey, adding "significant evidence was found at his home." Ivey said the basis of the charges were "relative to possession'' but a description of specific charges was not yet available.

In 1999, as a teacher at Gemini Elementary, Sheppard was reprimanded over "inappropriate professional behavior and poor judgment concerning excessive gifts and personal comments targeted at an individual student in your first-grade classroom."

A parent of a 6-year-old boy stated Sheppard gave numerous gifts to her son over a six-week period and had made inappropriate statements to her son concerning a room at his house for the child.

As a result, Sheppard was not allowed to have private contact with the boy, no gifts were to be given out and he was to make no more comments referring to "taking students home with you" per the letter of reprimand.

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Sheppard began his career working at Port Malabar Elementary from 1981-1984. He went on to teach at Creel Elementary from 1985-1989 before serving as assistant principal there until 1995.

In 1995, he began teaching at Gemini Elementary until 2003. From 2003-2007, he taught at Freedom 7 Elementary and then served as assistant principal there from 2007-2009.

He also served as Stevenson Elementary's assistant principal from 2009-2015 before serving as Spessard Holland's principal for the 2015-2016 school year.

"Obviously words can't adequately express how saddened and disgusted I am by what the Sheriff just shared with you," Blackburn said. He added that he had "just become aware of this this morning."

"I'm sickened by it. I look at this case and I find it hard to understand how anybody could be this demented," added Sheriff Wayne Ivey.

Blackburn said he would "in particular" be reaching out to parents "with more information."

Anyone with additional information about this investigation is asked to please call the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigative Services at 321-633-8499, or CRIMELINE at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477), you can also visit http://crimeline.org/, or text ‘crimeline’ plus your tip to CRIME (274637). All information to CRIMELINE is confidential and you may be eligible for a reward.