68-year-old accused of sexual assault of 12-year-old





Update 1:55 p.m.

Jack R. Arons, 68, has been arrested on four counts of lewd and lascivious behavior and one count of cruelty toward a child in connection to sexual abuse reported by a girl attending Magnolia School.

Check back with Tallahassee.com for updates on this story.

Original story

A third Magnolia School employee has turned herself in to police on charges of failure to report suspected child abuse at a home.

Sharon McQueen, 62, turned herself into the Leon County Jail Tuesday. She is accused of not reporting to authorities the alleged sexual abuse of a student by an acquaintance. Two other school employees, 40-year-old Sunshine Jacobs and 53-year-old Kathleen McGlynn, are facing similar charges.

McQueen is listed on the school's website as a middle school teacher. The alternative school on West Tharpe Street teaches kindergarten through 8th grade and has between 55 and 60 students.

The school's site lists Jacobs as a middle school math and Spanish teacher and McGlynn as the school's administrative director.

Police say a 12-year-old girl attending the school told staff members in January she was being sexually abused.

Instead of alerting the Florida Department of Children and Families as required by state law, Jacobs and McGlynn met with the girl, her mother and the suspect and developed a "safety plan."

The plan required the girl to take her clothes into the bathroom when taking a shower so she could change in there afterward. She was to begin counseling, not be alone with the suspect and not wear revealing clothing around him.

Friends of the victim, other students at the school, brought concerns about the alleged child abuse forward to McQueen after the plan was developed in a series of notes, according to court records.

During interviews with police, one of the witnesses said she asked McQueen about the victim's case approximately 15 times but the teacher declined to divulge details to the student..

About two months later, on Mar. 11, a third party ultimately reported the allegations to DCF, sparking the TPD investigation. The girl said the most recent "molestation" occurred two weeks prior.

Two years ago, the girl's mother told investigators the girl accused the suspect of abuse but he "was found not guilty and nothing happened to him," the report said.

McQueen did not return investigators' requests for an interview but instead sought legal counsel, court records show.