An assistant principal at a Florida middle school is on administrative leave after she allegedly had a student rub her feet while making inappropriate comments toward him, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
Dr. Keiva Lark, 53, assistant principal at Lake Marion Creek Middle School in Poinciana, was charged with lewd/lascivious conduct and lewd offense against a student by an authority figure after the principal of the school reported the incident to the sheriff’s office on April 4.
The victim, a 13-year-old male student, was allegedly sent to Lark’s office after throwing a balled-up piece of paper across the classroom during a test.
While in her office, Lark told him to rub her feet since he didn’t have anything better to do with his hands, two witnesses and the victim told the sheriff’s office. She then allegedly took off her shoes and put her legs across the boy’s lap.
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While he was rubbing her feet, she allegedly scolded him for not doing it correctly and demonstrated on his arm and shoulder how he should be doing it.
The sheriff’s office said one of Lark’s coworkers heard her tell the teen to “rub her feet like he loved her” and another witness allegedly heard her say that she wanted him to do this “so he would know what foreplay is for when he gets a girlfriend.”
One of the witnesses told detectives that Lark admitted to her a few days later that the incident with the student “crossed the line.”
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While conducting a forensic interview with the victim, he told authorities that Lark has called him “Sexy Chocolate” in the hallway at school.
“Dr. Lark initially told detectives that this was only a joke, and that she was just trying to humble the victim. It’s completely inappropriate for a 53-year old woman to act and talk like this to a middle school boy. It’s even worse given that this was an assistant principal and her student,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
The sheriff’s office said Lark admitted that she acted inappropriately for her profession, but that she did not say anything inappropriate to the victim.
The Polk County School Board and the Florida Department of Children and Families were notified of the incident, and Lark was placed on administrative leave.
“This is abhorrent behavior for anyone who works among students, especially an administrator. This person no longer has any business being around children. We commend the school principal for immediately reporting this incident, so we could take action and work with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office to protect students,” Polk County Public Schools Superintendent Frederick Heid said.
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