Crime · Clermont, FL
Teaching Assistant at Clermont High School Arrested for Alleged Child Abuse
Michael Anthony Jones, a 66-year-old teaching assistant at East Ridge High School in Clermont, FL, was arrested on charges of child abuse without great bodily harm and battery after allegedly striking a student with the student's shoe multiple times and dragging him across a gymnasium floor. Lake County Sheriff's Office deputies reviewed security camera footage showing Jones removing the student's shoe and hitting him four times—twice on his bottom, once on his head, and once on his right arm—before dragging him along the floor; a cell phone video captured additional contact. Jones told deputies the student had used the word "gay" and later spit on him, prompting him to take the shoe and strike the student, though he denied punching the boy. Jones was booked at Lake County Jail and released after posting $11,000 bond.