An HIV-positive Florida track coach has been fired from a high school after being arrested and charged with sexually battering a teenage boy.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, 40-year-old Jarvis Young was arrested on Thursday (September 14) for allegedly attempting to have sexual contact with a 16-year-old student, and not disclosing that he was HIV-positive.
He was charged with sexual battery of a victim between 12 and 18 years of age by custodial authority; lewd and lascivious acts by a 24-year-old or older on a victim between 16 and 17 years of age; abuse of a child without bodily harm; interfering with the custody of a minor; and being an HIV-infected person; and having sex without informing a partner.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said that their investigation into Young battering the teenage boy began on August 28 after the 16-year-old student at Lakeland High School reported the alleged incident to the school’s resource deputy. The teenage boy claimed that the Florida track coach tried to initiate sexual contact with him.
The young boy further claimed that while inside of a school building the Florida track coach was giving him a massage when he removed the boy’s shorts and touched his privates, attempting to perform an oral sex act. The teenage boy told authorities that he immediately jumped up and stopped the track coach. Authorities said that the incident happened two days before the boy reported the alleged incident.
Since the alleged incident, the Florida track coach has been fired and has been charged. Additionally, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd shared that the former track coach had been previously arrested for inappropriate sexual behavior with minors, but was never convicted.
Judd said, “Jarvis Young is a predator. He likes children in a way that no adult should, and he used his position of authority to take advantage of a child for his own illicit sexual gratification. He needs to be locked up and never be allowed unsupervised near children again.”
Prior to this current alleged incident, the former track coach was charged in Polk County with conspiracy to commit sexual battery in 2011 after he and another person were accused of picking up two minors they mentored and driving them to Orlando, where they sexually battered the victims. Judd said the case was eventually dropped due to the statute of limitations expiring.
Judd said in 2017, the Lakeland Police Department received another report from a minor claiming the former track coach allegedly touched his thigh and unzipped his pants before the minor could escape. In this case, no criminal charges were ever filed.
Since the former track coach’s termination and arrest for sexually battering the teenage boy, Polk County Public Schools Superintendent Fred Heid gave his thanks to the Sheriff’s Office for its investigation and also released a statement.
Heid said, “Our students and families should expect to be safe in the presence of school employees and coaches. The allegations against Jarvis Young are deeply disturbing. Although he was never convicted of any past incidents, I am extremely troubled that he was involved with our school system in any capacity. We will take a hard look at the circumstances that resulted in this individual working alongside students. I will do everything in my power to prevent this from happening again.”
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