Police: Varsity Lakes Middle students had sex during school hours

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. – Just a week after classes resumed in Lee County, school staff at Varsity Lakes Middle School discovered two middle school students had sex in a restroom.

Though on the surface, the incident sounds similar to the sex scandal at South Fort Myers High School, there are key differences.

First: the number of students involved. According to police reports, a middle school boy was reported skipping class on Wednesday when he met up with a female classmate. There were two students involved in comparison to more than a dozen at South Fort Myers.

The second difference is the timing of the incidents. The South Fort Myers incident happened after school while students were supposed to be in a study hall. The two students at Varsity Lakes Middle School are accused of having sex during school hours.

Assistant principal Jason Plucker-Gonzalez went to check surveillance video before noon and concluded that the children had been in the bathroom for about 20 minutes, the police report says.

Staff members were sent to the restroom and found the second student was still there, according to the police report. She explained to adults that she had just had sex with the male student and a deputy with the Major Crime Unit was called.

In the most recent of students’ sex incidents, Varsity Lakes is bringing school security back into question. Just one day before the middle school incident, Lee County School District officials stressed how they did not want to see a repeat of the “disturbing and tragic” South Fort Myers scandal.

“As you know, we have strengthened our supervisory protocols at all Lee County Schools to try and prevent something like this from happening again,” a press release from Aug. 16 said.

That press release announced that football coach Anthony Dixon was fired in continued fallout from the South Fort Myers sex scandal.

School District of Lee County spokesperson Lauren Stillwell confirmed the incident Thursday, saying that protocol was followed.

In a statement Friday, Stillwell said: “The active supervision plan at Varsity Lakes Middle School worked. The students were located, law enforcement was notified and the parents were called. The students have been disciplined according to the student code of conduct.”

The incident at South Fort Myers was recorded on a student’s cellphone. It is unknown whether a video of the act at the middle school exists.

Similar to the South Fort Myers incident, parents of the middle school students declined to press charges.