August 25, 2009
Gary Davidson
Public Information Officer

TEACHER’S AIDE CHARGED WITH LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS CONDUCT

A teacher’s aide from Pride Elementary School in Deltona was arrested early Tuesday morning on charges that he inappropriately touched a 10-year-old student under her shirt. The allegation against 62-year-old Guy Carlisle first surfaced in April. The investigation by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office’s Sex Crimes Unit resulted in Carlisle being charged with lewd or lascivious conduct, a 2^nd-degree felony.

The girl’s mother first reported the allegation to the Florida Department of Children Families, which called in the Sheriff’s Office to conduct a criminal investigation. The alleged offense occurred at the school in April, while Carlisle was conducting a reading lesson with the girl and another student. According to Carlisle, who worked as a paraprofessional at the school, the three were behind closed doors, in a small room connecting two classrooms. The girl, a 4^th-grader at the time, said that during the lesson, Carlisle touched her two times underneath her shirt -- rubbing her back and shoulder and also moving his hand inside the front of her shirt. The girl said the physical contact made her uncomfortable, but that she was scared at the time and didn’t know what to do. She told her mother about the encounter the next day.

After the mother reported the incident, the School District immediately moved Carlisle out of the school and transferred him into a position without student contact. Carlisle told Sheriff’s investigators that he touched the girl on her shoulder to give her encouragement about her assignment, but denied putting his hands down her shirt or touching her inappropriately. After reviewing the findings of the Sheriff’s Office’s investigation, Circuit Court Judge Hubert Grimes issued an arrest warrant for Carlisle on Aug. 18. Port Orange Police picked up Carlisle at his home in Port Orange at about 3 a.m. Tuesday morning. He was booked in to the Volusia County Branch Jail shortly before 5 a.m. and released after posting $1,000 bond.