fbpx

Updated: St. Patrick’s Assistant Principal arrested for child neglect and tampering with evidence

Staff report

Update on June 3: All charges against Ryan Clemens were dropped on June 2, 2024.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Ryan Michael Clemens, 41, was arrested today and charged with child neglect and tampering with evidence; he was the Assistant Principal at St. Patrick Interparish School, where the Athletic Director, Christopher Chell, was recently arrested on 10 counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child between 12 and 16 years of age.

On February 20, a female seventh-grader told Clemens that Chell had made inappropriate comments that made her uncomfortable; she reportedly said that Chell said he could be her “secret boyfriend” but that they would need to keep it a secret and could not be “open” about the “relationship.”

Chell’s arrest report states that Clemens told a Gainesville Police Department Detective that Chell had a reputation at the school for favoring middle school girls: “Looking back he did have a lot of favorites that were girls – always sixth, seventh, eighth-grade girls would visit him. During class, between classes.” Clemens reportedly told the detective that he was aware that Chell hugged female students, the ones he considered his “favorites.”

A 12-year-old victim reportedly told the detective that Chell would say “I love you” to her and would expect her to say it back to him. Chell’s arrest reports notes, “[The victim] also said that if she didn’t say ‘I love you’ back to [Chell] he would get ‘upset’ or even ‘mad’ until she did say it. [Chell] exhibited the same type of ‘upset’ response when [the victim] would not visit him in between classes or after class.”

Chell’s arrest report notes that the 12-year-old said Chell expected to hug her every day, starting around September 2023; she reportedly said that over time, Chell began touching her inappropriately during these “side hugs” and that the incidents at first could have been accidental, but, the arrest report notes, “it became evident that it was intentional over time.”

GPD’s investigation found that Clemens learned about the inappropriate comments within an hour of when the comments were made, and he allegedly decided to investigate the incident himself instead of reporting it to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) or law enforcement. The investigation reportedly consisted of a closed-door meeting the same day between Clemens, Chell, and the victim; during the meeting, Chell reportedly said he did not make the alleged comments, and Clemens reportedly told the victim that he believed Chell was telling the truth, “one hundred percent.”

Clemens reportedly closed the investigation and took no further action. However, during GPD’s investigation, Clemens reportedly told a detective that the very next day, he overheard Chell telling another school employee that he did ask to be the victim’s “secret boyfriend” but was “kidding.” Clemens still allegedly took no further investigative or disciplinary action toward Chell. The victim’s family withdrew her from the school the day after the victim reportedly the incident to Clemens.

Later the same week, Clemens reportedly received a report from a school employee that Chell’s behavior toward a middle school girl had made the employee “uncomfortable.”

Clemens did not report the February 20 incident to DCF until February 23; the report he made allegedly concluded that Chell had done nothing wrong and that the victim had agreed that Chell did not ask her to be in a secret relationship, even though Clemens had reportedly overheard Chell jokingly admit this to another employee. Both Clemens and Chell have reportedly told others that DCF’s refusal to investigate the incident is an indication that nothing inappropriate had taken place.

Days later, Clemens was reportedly approached by three female sixth-graders who said Chell had made inappropriate comments to them and had touched them inappropriately while hugging them. Clemens reportedly took no further investigative or disciplinary action after speaking with the girls and made no additional reports to DCF.

The GPD Detective reported that the day after this meeting, at least one female middle school student at the school was victimized by Chell during school hours. Chell was fired on February 28.

Clemens reportedly told the detective that he had seen written communications in Chell’s office that contained evidence relating to the case, but he said he threw away this evidence after Chell was fired.

The detective noted that the charges were brought because of the incident that took place after Clemens learned about Chell’s alleged inappropriate behavior and Clemens’ admission that he had thrown away evidence.

Clemens has been employed at St. Patrick Interparish School for 4.5 years and held the position of Athletic Director before being named the Assistant Principal about 18 months ago. When Clemens took the Assistant Principal position, Chell became Athletic Director.

Clemens has no local criminal history except the successful completion of a deferred prosecution agreement for possession of an alcoholic beverage by someone under the age of 21 in 2002. His first appearance hearing will be held tomorrow, and bail will be set at that time.

Detectives believe there may be more victims. If you have any information regarding this incident or have knowledge of any victims, please contact Sgt. Pandak at (352) 393-7734.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 

  • Up next, the principal who hired Chell w out running a background check.

    • That hiring principal was fired last year so please stop trolling.

      • Respectfully, whoever hired Chell needs to also be held accountable. Chell had a misdemeanor assault charge prior to being hired. It’s public record. Either his criminal history was ignored or a background check was not done. Parents deserve answers as to why someone like Chell was even allowed on campus. If it wasn’t the principal at the time who hired him, it is still the principals responsibility to know the staff who has contact with children everyday.

        • A charge is not a conviction. And by itself is not a criminal history.

          • The Florida Department of Education will even pull expunged charges of those who were underage. It does matter, and they are looking.

            Would you hire someone with an assault charge to work around children?

            I would hope administration would pass and look at other applicants.

    • Does he have a actual previous record? I can’t find if we was previously convicted for any misdemeanor or crime. And news articles don’t mention this.

      • Yes, you have to go on the alachua county courts and search his name.

        Party Charges
        01 2000 MM 009841 A – MISDEMEANOR Closed – C1 (JUDGE JAWORSKI)
        STATE OF FLORIDA -VS- CHELL, CHRISTOPHER CHARLES

        Party Information
        Full Name CHELL, CHRISTOPHER CHARLES
        Party Type DEFENDANT

        Charge Action Phase Disp. Date Disposition Counts
        1 BATTERY COURT 11/08/2001 Withheld Adj.

          • If I’m dating someone and I find out they are charged with assault and had to take anger management, I would most certainly not chose them for myself. But sure, let them work with innocent children. Let all the parents know. Let’s see how they feel about it.

          • So? Withheld adj is a special sentence in which the judge orders probation but does not formally convict the defendant of a criminal offense.

            A court can withhold adjudication if it seems unlikely that the defendant will commit another crime in the future. Well, the court was wrong!

            Something to say ?

        • Thank you for sharing. I did find the the county court though I couldn’t find the exact details of the case. But given that he was 24 years old at the time, I am just assuming he might have gotten into a fight and ended up doing community service/writing an apology letter to the victim.

          To go back to your previous comment, not sure it’s fair the previous principal is to blame even if they knew he got into a fight 20 years ago.

          • He’s 46 now so that would have been 22 years ago. That’s the only thing (until now) in the court records for Alachua county.

  • If you still have children enrolled at this school then you must not care about them at all.

    • Yes, that gave me a sick feeling. Why would he not report it, not believe the girl and wait days to report the incident? Because the parents withdrew her and he was covering his butt it seems. I’m concerned as to why he was allowing this closed door meeting with the victim and the abuser in the first place. Everything that has been mentioned seems like he was protecting this creep and not doing what a Principal or anyone who works with kids should do. The fact that he hears comments, knew that he was showing extra attention to these young girls and would not do anything about it and then continue to lie, leads to to believe that he has a lot more to do with this situation. He needs to be looked into. Not believing the kids who are brave enough to come forward is traumatizing for them and makes me sick. Everything about this is wrong.

  • What a mess.

    This guy had a chance to fix the issue and didn’t. When you have a teacher and several students come forward then chances are the situation is for real.

    Wow.

  • The smug look in his mugshot says everything. Almost like he knows nothing will really happen to him…

  • Yes, pull your kids from this school immediately and send them someplace like Santa Fe High where they will be safe.
    Oh, wait. . .

    • Exactly, doesn’t matter if the school is public/private/ atheist/religious…society allowed too much degeneracy to fester for too long. You get pedos and a peasant education at 99% of schools.

      Children don’t need 8 hours a day at an institution to properly learn…that’s just ridiculous

      • With both parents (if they’re lucky to have both) out of the house working to pay crazy $$$ for rent/mortgage – who is going to take care of the kids?

        IMO K-12 educational institutions are glorified taxpayer funded daycare.

        • No quick fix. But we need to start being more vocal if unhappy. Our public schools get approx $30k per year per student. If the govt is willing to fund public schools that amount why can’t parents receive a decent allowance to do it themselves… it’s difficult for a parent to stay home as you mentioned because the whole damn deck is stacked against regular people in support of the status quo. I’m not saying you should get $30k per kid per year to raise them yourself but you get the drift. It’s a racket and the resources should be reallocated

          • Thanks! 30k students, $260mil budget, so approx $8.5k each child. I mixed up the 30k student number with the $ per student number.

            That would go a long way for a lot of people who are fed up with the school options.

          • Finland has one of the best, if not the best school systems in the world. They spend over 18,000 a year, and their teachers are paid more and respected. Unfortunately, if American kids were well educated they might not believe all the nonsense that Fox News puts out, which would upset their parents. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/0b972e33-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/0b972e33-en#:~:text=The%20average%20expenditure%20per%20student,that%20of%20the%20secondary%20level.

          • We get it, you prefer state run media that lies for pos46 and the rest of the good for nothing trash that spend their lives being tax payer leeches! Enriching their trash selves while “working for the people” more like screwing the people! Crazy how one becomes a multimillionaire while never earning more than 400k while living in one of if not the most expensive area in the country! Talk about being a brainwashed dolt!

          • It’s not the GOP and Fox who preach racial division, encourage policies that keep Black families without a father push the alphabet soup ideas on society, or are ruining women sports by calling mediocre males female and allow them to dominate women sports.

          • lol at how this was downvoted. The truth hurts and it’s amazing how little Americans think of education and think they can do better themselves. We are living in the golden age of Dunning Kruger!

          • It costs taxpayers about $12k/year for a kid in the public school system.

            Don’t have kids if you can’t educate & feed them yourself.
            It’s called personal responsibility.

            It takes a village to raise a child is a commi saying..

          • Lies. Florida does NOT pay schools 30K per student. It was $9,465 in 2023.

    • Did anything ever come out about what exactly happened at Santa Fe? Other than what Colby Thompson claims. Everything I’ve seen says that HE is saying there is an FDLE investigation. And I’m not being an a-hole. I’m seriously curious. Lol

  • Straighten up, guys. Start doing things by the book for a change instead of like crazy backwoods country people.

    • Nothing wrong w/back woods country people, I take issue w/with referring to all of them crazy, but, w/o a doubt, some of them are just as crazy as most urbanites.

  • The whole school is probably going down in flames… on St. Patrick’s day too.

    • Well that was a Sunday, It’s March 18th and as far as I know, It’s doing fine

  • I guess this proves that the private school system is just as broken as the public school system.

  • The former principal, Mackritis, is culpable. He should be arrested. And the current pastor, Fr Lawrence. This happened under his watch. I hope the detectives are interviewing them.

    • The pastor isn’t at the school everyday. How would he know unless parents or students reached out? This is like saying the superintendent of the public schools should be fired for what’s happening at Santa Fe.

      • The pastor is at the school every day. He boasts constantly about how great and involved he is. Parents and students reach out constantly. Females are quieted and minimized. He is responsible.

    • Why do you say Mr. Mack should be held accountable? He hasn’t been at the school since Nov. Just trying to understand this point of view

      • He hired both of them…and one had a prior assault charge. Not to mention his negligence and lack of leadership also resulted in the school being defrauded out of $50,000, and that’s only the amount we know of… I’m sure it was far more than that. He was given information that he didn’t act on regarding the finance director years ago. Additionally, he let a person on campus as a parent volunteer for years who had been arrested for hiring underage prostitutes on more than a dozen occasions. Some people defend the principal because he was caring or nice or whatever the case may be, but that doesn’t mean they are fit to be a leader.

          • Yes, he was fired in November… this was reported in February but the in between class visits by young girls and mandatory hugs (grooming) began as far back as the beginning of the school year per the report. At the very least GPD needs to interview all admin that was and currently still is there at the time of these events. The guidance counselor as well. That’s the only way I would feel safe putting my child at that school…

        • 100% I finally had to go to the diocese to put a stop to the former volunteer that hired underaged kids. I went through the chain of command to raise my concerns and it was only handled once I spoke with Decon Scott.

          I was originally told that we should forgive and show grace. They didn’t need my forgiveness… they didn’t do anything to me or my child…. I wanted my kid and the other kiddos to be protected.

          • When I was employed there I expressed my concern for myself and my students haven’t the predator allowed daily on campus and I too was told I needed to “forgive”. It’s not about forgiveness, it’s about not letting anything horrific happen to the children that I was entrusted to protect.

        • THE DIOCESE HANDLES ALL OF WHAT YOUR ACCUSING MR.MACK OF DOING. Background checks, hiring, etc go through the Diocese.

  • I know several families who do not support Clemons or his crew. I’m glad he is gone. Father Lawrence needs to go next. They all need to pay for failing us. Drain the swamp!

  • My kids have gone to St Pat’s, girls and boys. It is a wonderful community. We are not leaving. Most of us have known the assistant principal to be a kind, fair and a decent person. I sure hope that if someone abused a kid, that they pay a price.

    However, something about the choreography of this whole story seems like a set up…like the kick off to a huge civil lawsuit against the church. Especially with the arrest of Mr. Clemens.

    Seems like the other day GPD was being used by a major real estate company to conduct an improper SWAT raid. I hope I am wrong. However, if you don’t think certain people of a certain political persuasion are targeting Catholics, you haven’t been paying attention.

    • Wow… you are seriously DELUSIONAL .. you must be drinking the koolaid..Clemons did not do his job and report allegations.. he destroyed evidence. He straight up told the victim he didn’t believe her..

      • He also had the required training as a professional and through the church to know his obligations to report allegations.

    • You’re conflating criminal and civil cases… And are you saying these kids/victims are plants?..false witnesses? How much evidence, year after year do you guys need!?!

      You’re in denial. ‘The church’ doesn’t need to be setup. It’s ripe for prosecution.

    • You do sound like you go to St. Pats. You have grown accustomed to minimizing serious concerns. This is the culture there. Your conspiracy theory of school aged children conspiring a lawsuit is off base. Question yourself and the beliefs that have been imposed on you. Gut check your inner voice, because the culture there works to quiet that.

    • I would say…. As a parent who has been there since 2011. You have NO idea.

    • You are an idiot. Lay the pipe down. Kids are forever messed up because of this, and you are trying to throw some bs conspiracy theory? I know some of these victims and the parents have been trying to reach for help for months! Everything has been swept under the rug, until now!!! Justice WILL BE SERVED and I hope each and every one of these poor kids recovers from this. They smiled in their mugshots!

  • Thank you. You made my point perfectly, and the anti Christian bias shows. The report indicates teachers supposedly brought this horrible situation to the assistant principle. Aren’t those teachers mandatory reporters? Why aren’t they being charged? Maybe everybody had serious doubts. Maybe the assistant principal was told something different than what was told to the police.

    Ask actual school employees, public or private, if students or parents ever make false claims. Not saying that happened here but its worth remembering that it happens a lot. Wasn’t there a local band director who got accused of something and it was later dropped?

    Do we just automatically believe everything in a police report, especially where the police are getting their information second or third hand? I thought lefties were always telling everyone to “question authority” with their bumper stickers. I guess those bumper stickers don’t apply when Christian schools are in the crosshairs.

    • Please put these children first and stop dividing with politics. I respect that you want more evidence. Please just keep the focus on the children and their families and your school which must be in deep pain.
      -signed,
      A Catholic who dislikes politics and has a child in a school under the same diocese.

    • Just because somebody hangs up a sign that says Catholic or Christian doesn’t make it so. That school has a big culture and attitude problem, at least it did under Mackritis, and it’s only been a few short months since he left.

    • Also, if you actually read the report or had inside info… you would KNOW that a teacher was the one who reported immediately it after students came to them.

    • It’s not anti Christian. You’ve clearly drank the Catholic kool aid. You should be ashamed of your self minimizing the victims.

    • Either way… the children come first and the abuser should be removed until proven innocent. But….HE ADMITTED TO IT.

  • Wow! In this day and age you would think someone in Clemon’s position would have the brain capacity to figure out “this ain’t right”. Disgusting & inexcusable behavior by both Clemons and Chell. Deep investigations need to happen with all authority figures at that school, because you know those two weren’t the only ones knowing about this. I’d pull my kids out of there so fast!

    • The whole office staff needs to go! Minus the counselor…shes amazing 🤩

      • What makes you say this? Do you have information that the office staff waa somehow involved as well? I’m a parent at the school and would like to understand.

  • The school administration puts the Catholic Church above the safety of children. The culture of the school is to not question, or discuss, and Father Lawrence will handle everything. It is a breeding ground for minimizing and covering up serious situations. This is just the beginning. Money needs to go to public institutions where we have oversight. It may not be perfect, but public institutions we still have a voice. Parents have no voice at St Patrick’s. Just following the church. It’s all top down.

  • Horrible situation, lesson learned we need mandatory “Hotlines” posted in schools for our children. I have “Zero” faith in DCF but maybe mandatory yearly interviews of randomly picked students to check for possible abuse by predators. Let’s focus on prevention and hope the prosecutor and Courts do their job. We can’t predict the evil people have inside. Remember the Subway spokesman “Jared”.

    • Don’t let the school pick them. They will pick the brain washed… drank the kool aid kids. That’s what they did when the diocese came in several years ago. Only the koolaid drinking families kids were chosen for an interview with the diocese. It wasn’t by mistake those kids were chosen for the survey/assessment of the school.

  • It doesn’t say what the “lewd etc” acts were precisely. These days just unwelcome hugging could be deemed such, apparently.
    Still, a reminder that wherever kids are, Satan can be lurking there too. Even without an adult around 🥺🥺

  • Preying on the naivety and trust of children, what lengths some a-sholes will go to for their own pleasure/benefit. I hope they get every legal punishment they deserve.

  • The public school system needs to keep those lgbqxyz books out of the school library and stay out of children’s pants. Let the parents deal with their children’s sexuality. That was child abuse forcing face masks on the kids for the big lie Covid.

    • Why don’t you try not to worry about LGBT. Statistics and data say that there is a lot more molestation going on in the Catholic school systems/church’s or just with heterosexual men in general than any gay establishment that I have ever been too. So before you make yourself sound more ignorant than you already have ……why don’t straight men and priest’s keeps their hands off of little boys and little girls. It’s an 11 to 1 ratio . I know of zero gay pedophiles, but I do know about 500 straight men right in Gainesville that are child molesters. so who is the REAL EVIL now? I don’t think it’s the gays hunny.

  • I hope investigators are looking into what the diocese knew.

  • Refer to article in Ignite Life Center in this printing, more sexual abuse from leadership.

  • St. Patrick’s school is great school. Parents have a lot of input there, despite what some people who don’t know the school are saying. It has a diverse student body on the east side of Gainesville with great teachers.

    All of us parents are getting updates from Father Lawrence about who is getting arrested and what the charges are. All he is asking the parents to do is to report any other concerning incidents directly to the police.

    I’ve been reading a lot of crappy opinions from trolls in this blog. Now you get to hear my opinion.

    We need to deal firmly with any creep found at the school. Firmly.
    Unfortunately, judging ONLY from the report in public record, there are a lot of unanswered questions about why the assistant principal was arrested. Before you destroy a person’s livelihood, you better have the goods. The report attacking Clemens looks like it was written on swiss cheese, with lots of holes and unanswered questions. Sounds like he was being helpful and honest with the cops, but probably should’ve gotten a lawyer first. Sounds like he was pounced on. Sometimes the police arrest people who are not part of the main charges to bully them into “compliance” with their preferred narrative. By bringing apparently weak charges against Clemens, the cops risk undermining the original charges against the alleged creep. Why? Because a decent lawyer could shred the charges against Clemens, and might destroy the other case in the process as collateral damage.

    But maybe catching a real criminal gem isn’t the point the City of Gainesville is making here with its police department. I’m concerned this is turning into Lawfare against a Christian community in Gainesville. But why?

    Everyone with a brain knows the officials running the Alachua County public schools are destroying the merit based magnet programs. They are also pushing Newberry and surrounding communities out of their system with their incompetence and “agenda first” mentality. They are spooked by how unpopular their crappy ideas are.

    Is it possible the city is teaming up to kill off competition from private/charter/religious schools? I hope not. A few years ago, I would have scoffed at the thought. But then again, a few years ago, I also would not have believed that successful programs like IB, Lincoln, Cambridge program would be sent to the guillotine by our public officials.

    Judging by some of the comments here, it sounds like some people think that if parents once again have less educational choices, they will send their kids back to the imploding public school system. Maybe that is what the City of Gainesville is thinking too.

    • Maybe you should call the detective instead of defending pedos. You’re doing exactly what Ryan was doing. Covering and defending a dirt bag.

    • I suggest you read the FL state statute of mandatory reporting obligation by educators. Failure to do so is the charge Clemens picked up. Problem with liars is, they often fall into their Swiss cheese holes of lies and incriminate themselves. Which in fact is what he did. His statement he gave as a witness for the Chell case contradicted his report to DCF, that was not immediately reported when allegations came to him on 2/20. Therefore he withheld information in his initial report. He also held a close door meeting with the girl and her perpetrator to “groom” her into thinking this was a joke and apologize. I’m horrified any parent would still be defending him.

      What’s your excuse for him destroying evidence? You can’t tell the police you have written documentation in Chell office as evidence and then when police show up for it “you threw it away”.

      • YOU get your facts straight and read the arrest report and the article CAREFULLY. No one reported inappropriate TOUCHING to Clemens. Only inappropriate comments were reported. Comments don’t necessarily trigger the mandatory reporting requirement. But Clemens did report out of an abundance of caution after a teacher reported to him that Chell’s behavior was concerning to her. Inappropriate touching only came up AFTER the girls were interviewed by LEOs. Not saying it couldn’t have been handled better, but the way this is being portrayed is wrong.

        • Please don’t refer to yourself as a mother. Downplaying what sick things these girls went through is disgusting. You are basically saying it’s okay for grown adult men who are educators to make passes at girls about dating and keeping it a secret. Maybr you should read the state statute again, it is not just touching that should be reported. Any misconduct. A grown adult trying to make passes at a 7th grader, tell her it can be their secret, and then saying it was a joke when approached should be of concern to you as a mother.

          • Did any of the girls report inappropriate touching to Clemens? If they had, he would have reported it right away. The truth will come out.

          • https://www.dosaeducation.org/_files/ugd/23a2c7_e99927666d7341e1be674c6062b9c16a.pdf

            I suggest you read the professional misconduct flyer off the diocese of schools page. That’s if you can properly read, because you clearly aren’t understanding the statute either.

            It’s disgusting you are here defending passes at a child are okay from a grown men.

            I’d also like to address the people saying this is prior principal fault. He would only be held accountable if he in fact knew. If this was brought to his attention and he didn’t report. EXACTLY what Clemens didn’t do and why he got arrested for it. I also suggest you call the detective as they will be happy to give you clear insight and understanding. Not go off what the man arrested is telling you. Huge difference in what he is saying to you that happened and what he actually did to handle.

            What’s your excuse for him sitting her down in a closed door meeting with the offender and no parent notification or present. I’m sure the office videos can pull that to show, that’s if Clemens didn’t delete that too.

          • The flyer you posted is about reporting to the superintendent of schools, not mandatory reporting of neglect or abuse.
            I have read the police report and statutes carefully, and I suggest you do the same if you’re able to comprehend it.

          • I don’t know that Clemens put the girl in the same room as her abuser because it’s not in the police report that I read. I have only read that he did this in the news reports online, which doesn’t cite their sources. Honestly, I don’t believe anyone in their right mind would question the child in the same room as the accused, so I’m wondering if this is a rumor. I would need to see Clemens police report or hear some sworn testimony before I believe this hook, line, and sinker.

        • From this article:”Days later, Clemens was reportedly approached by three female sixth-graders who said Chell had made inappropriate comments to them and had touched them inappropriately while hugging them. Clemens reportedly took no further investigative or disciplinary action after speaking with the girls and made no additional reports to DCF.”

    • Unwelcomed touching, intimidation, child abuse, lies, possible cover-up, destroyed evidence, failure to report on more than one occasion, unethical behavior, previous firing, arrests… there’s a whole lot going on at St. Pat’s, but you’re worried about Newberry and magnet programs? Seems like you’ve gotten yourself some real degeneracy at that school.

      • Previous firing? The principal wasn’t fired over anything to do with the school. It was because he was unwed and living with his girlfriend who is now his wife. A stupid reason to fire such an amazing person.

    • Im someone who knows this girl and her mom. He knew better than to pull her into his office with her abuser and intimidate her. He told her to her face he believes Chell 100 %. He took his friends side over a child who needed help. Him being a father himself should have taken her side. Chell should have been removed until further notice. The people in the front office can’t separate friendship from work and it shows. No parent is safe to make a complaint because their child will be a target. Clemens was wrong for what he did and anyone with a brain knows its wrong. He did what he did to protect his buddy and now probably feels pretty stupid knowing his buddy is a disgusting pervert.

    • The city of Gainesville does run or have authority over Alachua County Public Schools…

  • As a Catholic parent and family member of existing students at St. Pat’s, I’m saddened by these comments. Instead of coming together to support the poor children, families and teachers affected by this, it’s turned into a politically motivated conspiracy theory.

  • You’d think that the Catholic Church might have learned and applied lessons of the recent past about handling allegations of abuse internally and failing to pass them to local authorities to investigate. Which is, BTW, the freaking law.

    • What does a Catholic church have to do with it? What does the religion aspect have to do with it? Theres schools all over dealing with the same issue but because they’re not faith based people dont judge as harshly.

  • Little civics lesson for the haters: Innocent until proven guilty. Sorry…THATS THE LAW.

    Ryan Clemens is a good man. Was very kind and fair to my daughter when she was there. He had a great way of resolving conflict anong the students. He needs a good defense lawyer. If he gets one, he will prevail.

    Can’t wait to have a little chat with the haters when that happens 🙂

    • Here’s a civics lesson for you: That principle means that the accused gets due process before losing his freedom.

      It has no bearing whatsoever on discussions among citizens.

    • The responsibility of being a school administrator encompasses more than being “kind” or “compassionate”. Just as in any profession. There was a neglect of responsibility that led to additional incidences and victims. This culture of incompetence is viral. The only people at the school that have acted responsible and dutifully fulfilling their obligations, are the children that reported, repeatedly, despite their voices being silenced by administration. Those children were forced to become the leaders due to the vacancy of adult leadership. This is a tragedy that will run deep. These kids were abandoned by their community.

      • THIS! I’ve said this exact thing when some of the teachers and parents continued to support the admin… I’ve been saying it for years. Kind and caring does NOT mean leader… the things turned a blind eye to or let slide led to these horrific crimes including the money being embezzled and resources spent in ways that didn’t make the most sense. Total lack of professionalism and responsibility.

  • So…..
    I must ask, knowing the “history of the actions of those associated with the Catholic Faith”,
    What is the lesson? What has been learned?
    Is this God’s All knowing and All Powerful way of teaching this school/church a lesson of some kind?
    This article does not hold any more weight, pomp and/or circumstance, than any other arrest article on AC.
    The only reason it appears so interesting is simple because of the “Jesus” aspect.
    Now, before my audience gets all crazy and flips out, just hear me for a minute.
    There is a lot of money to beheld in the name of Jesus.
    Just asked any inmate who has to stay at the jail beyond first appearance. He or she will tell you they believe in Jesus. They didn’t believe in Jesus when they were out doing wrong, but they believe in Jesus now!
    There is a hell of lot of money to beheld at summer camps, church programs, and so called schools that are titled & beholden to the name of Jesus.
    What someone really needs to do is just be up front and honest about it.
    What if we done away with credit unions and banks and just had a “First Bank of Christ”. 🤣
    See, these guys mentioned in this article have in fact broke the laws of the Florida Statutes.
    I’m NOT discounting the harm done to the students by their athletics director and administrative staff. They Must be prosecuted.
    As a result of their actions, now we have a situation where defense and prosecution attorneys, judges, sworn officers, court reporters and so on are making bank, in the name of Jesus.
    And here is the real deal, grown men can get away with inappropriately touching underage young girls, because Jesus Saves! He forgives!
    He makes these actions all okay.
    The Man, or physical man, (Ie. The ones accused of the crimes) can be inprisoned on his charges after his convictions in a court of law, and it don’t matter, because Jesus Saves!
    Have you ever really paid attention to the writing on American Currency Notes?
    There is a fine print on all American Currency Notes that Simply Say “In God We Trust”.
    Ironically enough, it’s only ever written on money.
    And all of it, from molesting kids, to the killings of wives and husbands for life insurance, too the gun violence situation, too drug addiction and Homelessness,
    its ALL in The Name of Jesus……

    • What in the world are you babbling about?! Jesus has nothing to do with this. That’s the devils doings. And its not just Catholics that deal with these things its and religion or non religion. It’s just blown up for the atheists to prove their idiotic points they think they have.

  • It’s Florida y’all.

    The place of CRAZY.

    None of you should be shocked by now.

    Ladies for the love of god check all of your husband’s Google searches and emails. These kind of men are rampant in Florida. You never know what kind of psycho path you are sleeping right next to. Or don’t check things, and end up on 20/20 news special.

  • For all of you uneducated about who runs a Catholic school… it’s the Diocese that hires people. They conduct the background checks, etc. Educate yourselves before pointing blame. The people responsible are the people who committed the crimes.

  • There is absolutely no excuse for either Chell or Clemens. But also where was the diocese? They got rid of Mackritis and promised they would be at the school on a regular basis. I never saw anyone from the diocese on campus even one time after this was promised. I guess no one wanted to make the drive down from Jax? A very incompetent and inexperienced Clemens was left to run the day to day operations of the school. The interim principal Acosta had his own school to run and was not at SPS very often either. The diocese is also in the wrong for allowing Clemens to “play principal” when he clearly was not capable or equipped for the role. Definitely not giving a Clemens a pass on his actions but the diocese was also in the wrong.

  • What is the deal with parents upset with the front office staff? Did they do something as well?

    • Parents are frustrated and rightfully so but I believe should take a step back and support the great staff that are trying to rebuild and support the families.

  • So let me understand.. both men were employed there for 4.5 years with no problems until now? The coach is a secret pervert all this time who suddenly starts acting out his perversions in Sept 2023? Everyone knew something but no one reported anything until Clemens report on the 23rd? Is there any physical, video or forensic evidence? We will stay tuned and find out. Losers will down vote the obvious questions. Also, still waiting to see Clemens arrest report. Chell’s was available right away, why hasn’t Clemens been made available?

    • I have tried to find the reports on both without success. Guess I am not looking at the right place.

      In Clemens defense, we’ve never had an issue with him.

      Chell has always been a liberal jerk. We always thought he was arrogant and above everyone else… never thought he was/ or could be a pedophile… 🤷‍♀️ he always thought he was smarter than everyone else. Now looking back, I see things that would be considered grooming… seeing where things could go or trying to gain students trust. Back then I saw it as caring… but now I wonder if he was grooming.

  • I knew these dudes were weirdos. I am so glad I withdrew from working as a contractor in this school. That smirk speaks 1000000 words. Gross.

    • Wow! Never got a weird vibe from Clemens. His wife is a piece of work… but Chell has always rubbed us the wrong way. Told us History class that if Trump was reelected that him and his wife and daughter were leaving the country. Also, he didn’t identify as white. lol. Well according to his inmate look up… it says white.

  • Not exactly sure why so many comments discuss Chell’s political affiliation and what that has to do with his disgusting behavior, but I digress.
    This school is extremely unsupported and many teachers are left to pick up the pieces. They, along with the families, need support from the community right now more than ever. Some parents are using this awful situation as an excuse to ostracize great teachers and staff and it’s extremely frustrating and sad. All we should be doing as a community now is helping each other, not kicking while their down.

  • >