Michele Little released from jail on bond
A 29-year-old teacher at Sarasota Military Academy’s high school in Sarasota has been charged with a felony count of Indecent, Lewd, or Lascivious Touching of Certain Minors in the aftermath of alleged misconduct with a 17-year-old male student, the Sarasota Police Department (SPD) has reported.
Michele Anne Little, of 5805 Helen Way in Sarasota, was arrested on April 28 following an investigation into a report of a “suspicious incident” at the high school on April 17, the Probable Cause Affidavit says.
On April 29, Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office Correction Division records show, Little was released from the Sarasota County Jail on bond.
A 12th Judicial Circuit Court document that The Sarasota News Leader reviewed in the docket for Little’s case said the bond was set at $10,000, and Little was ordered “not to go to places [where] children congregate.”
Her arraignment is scheduled for June 9, court records also show.
The staff of Sarasota Military Academy sent the following statement to faculty, parents and students, a Police Department news release said: “The High School administration was made aware of an alleged incident that happened between a staff member and student that is being investigated by the Sarasota Police Department. We have come to learn that an arrest was made by the Sarasota Police Department, and any updates regarding this case will be released by the SPD.”
Sarasota Police officers were called to Sarasota Military Academy at 9:50 a.m. on April 25, Little’s Probable Cause Affidavit says, in regard to the allegations involving Little.
The Academy’s high school campus is located at 801 N. Orange Ave. in Sarasota, the affidavit points out.
Details of the incidents and events leading up to it
On April 27, the student was interviewed at the Child Protection Center in Sarasota, the Probable Cause Affidavit says. A detective with the Police Department and a second detective, with the Florida Department of Children and Families, observed that session from another room, the affidavit notes.
The student told the interviewer at the center that a teacher at the Military Academy began flirting with him, “and he was intrigued by it and went along with it. He believes this started a week or two” before the April 17 incident occurred, the affidavit continues.
The student explained that he started going to Little’s class during his lunch period because the teacher whose classroom he usually would go to at that time was on lunch duty one day. Then, he said, as noted in the affidavit, “Little started writing him lunch passes so he could cut the line to come to her class.”
A couple of days after she began that action, the student continued, Little “gave him an unlimited pass to go into her room,” the affidavit adds.
The student said he believes he went into her room only four or five times before the April 17 incident occurred, the affidavit says. He also reported that Little was not an instructor for any of his classes, it notes.
Little started flirting with him in what he described to the interviewer as minor ways, as reported in the affidavit. “She would call him dangerous (because he was only 17 years old and ‘hot’),” the affidavit points out.
Then, the Friday before the incident, the student said, the teacher made another statement to him that he interpreted “as sexual in nature,” the affidavit adds. She also “told him she could ‘show him a couple of things,’ ” the affidavit continues.
That same day, he acknowledged, he “purposely left his shoes in her classroom so he would have to get them after school,” which would allow him “to flirt with her because she had been flirting with him; he stated he didn’t plan on anything actually happening with the teacher,” the affidavit says.
When he arrived again at her classroom, the affidavit adds, he found the door unlocked, but when he went into the room, “he felt he was making her uncomfortable so he told her to have a good day and weekend and left the room,” the affidavit adds.
Then, on Monday, April 17, the student said, he went into her classroom again at lunchtime. That day, the affidavit continues, Little put a sign on the door to indicate that testing or tutoring was underway in the room, “so no one would enter the classroom while he was in there.” Only he and Little were in the room, he reported, as noted in the affidavit.
Little told him “that she had to take a cold shower and a hot plunge after school on Friday to clear her head because of him,” the affidavit says. Then, he added, “Little told him that she thought about them together over the weekend and was all for it,” the affidavit adds.
When the student asked her what she would be doing after school that day, the affidavit continues, Little said she would be cleaning up her room. He responded “in a kidding fashion that he could help her if she needed help,” the affidavit says. Little told him she “would like some help,” the affidavit adds.
When the student returned to the classroom at the end of school, the affidavit says, he saw that she had left a colored pencil sticking out of the door so it would not lock and he could enter the classroom. She lowered the blinds, the student told the interviewer, and he logged onto a computer “just in case someone walked in,” so he could pretend he was working on the computer, the affidavit continues.
While he was on the computer, the affidavit says, Little came over to the him and he began “ ‘making out with the teacher,’ ” he told the interviewer.
Following 10 to 15 minutes of that, the affidavit says, the student told the teacher he needed to leave. Little responded that they would have six more weeks to engage in such behavior, the affidavit adds, and she told the student she wanted to “do other things” with him.
In response to a question from the interviewer, the affidavit points out, the student said neither of them removed their clothing.
Her flirting with him went on for “multiple days,” the affidavit continues. The student added that Little told him he was “going to get her in trouble but she told him she was down with this,” or words to that effect, the affidavit notes.
On April 28, the affidavit continues, a Police Department detective reviewed surveillance video from Sarasota Military Academy; the camera was positioned in front of the door to Little’s classroom.
In all of the videos the detective reviewed, the affidavit says, the detective saw that the blinds were lowered on only one day — April 17
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call Detective Megan Buck at the Police Department: 941-263-6067; leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers by calling 941-366-TIPS; or going online at www.sarasotacrimestoppers.com, the Police Department news release says.