PALM COAST, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) -
A 16-year-old Matanzas High School student was arrested Monday evening on a charge of felony second degree sexual battery on a 14-year-old girl, in connection with an incident which occurred in a stairwell at the school.
The victim told Flagler County Sheriff's deputies that, around 9:45 a.m., she and the teenager were kissing in the stairwell when the boy forced her to perform a sex act on him. The victim told deputies he then forced her to have sex with him.
Detectives interviewed the teen who denied having sex with the victim, but admitted to meeting the girl in the stairwell, where the alleged sexual activity occurred.
Text messages between the teens shortly after the incident led detectives to file charges against the 16-year-old boy. He was arrested at 5 p.m. after questioning at the Sheriff's Office's Investigative Services Division.
Flagler schools Superintendent Janet Valentine said the school has two resources officers, one roams the building and one stays near the front of the school. There are 50 surveillance cameras, with 36 of them installed this past summer.
There was no camera in the stairwell where deputies said the girl was sexually assaulted.
On Tuesday, the school installed a camera in that stairwell. Valentine said, despite this case, the schools are safe.
