Every year in the United States on average 463,634 people aged 12 or older become victims of sexual assault. Seminole County schools in particular have been known to add to that list. Former Oviedo High School teacher Dennis Line was arrested this February on one count of attempting to coerce or entice a minor to engage in sexual activity. 51-year old Line was a teacher at Oviedo for 18 years, ending in 2019. On February 9 Line met who he thought to be a 15-year old girl on a dating app, they stayed in touch through a series of texts. They agreed to meet up that night but to Line’s surprise the “15-year old girl” turned out to be an undercover officer. When asked if he knew the girl was 15 Line states he is “absolutely okay” with the difference in age, and he was unhappy with his own marriage. Line is scheduled to be sentenced in November.. 

However, this is not the first time this has happened at Oviedo High School. In 2021, Derremy Walker the high school’s janitor was found guilty by a federal jury of recording up the skirt videos of female students and teachers. This all started in November 2019, when two female students found Walker’s phone currently recording, under a sink in the girl’s bathroom. The phone was positioned so it would record the person in the stall. The girls took this discovery to the high school’s dean, and resource officer. The police were promptly called as well. The phone was put in the same position two days prior to it being found. Walker recorded ten students in total and was also found of doing the same thing in the faculty bathroom earlier that month. On September 22, 2021 Walker was found guilty and sentenced to 60 years in federal prison.

Still, it is not just recently that Oviedo High School has had problems with predatory teachers and staff. In 2001 a very liked 29-year old band teacher Jonathan Schwartz resigned after four years of teaching after allegations came out of him inappropriately hugging and massaging a student. No charges were pressed against Schwartz, but it was suggested that this relationship was not appropriate for a student and teacher to have.

This disturbing crime is not just something Oviedo has had problems with. Other schools across Seminole County have fallen to these charges as well. Lake Howell, and Hagerty have both had issues with sexual assault at their schools within the past years. In the school year of 2014-2015 four teachers/staff members from Hagerty were arrested, all for various accounts of sexual assault. In 2018 Lake Howell High School’s JROTC instructor was arrested on suspicion of engaging in sexual activities with a student. Nonetheless, through all this chaos Winter Springs High School has stayed clean and has never had any charges against the school regarding sexual assault.