LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Lee County Schools previously investigated former paraprofessional Jamie Hill who got arrested this week for inappropriately touching a student at Lehigh Senior High School.
According to Hill’s personnel file, in 2017 the school district investigated Hill for “wrestling a female student or students to the ground during instructional time,” at Cape Coral High School. The district suspended Hill for three days without pay.
Parents in line to pick up students at Lehigh Senior Wednesday said they’re shocked Hill was able to get another job in the same school district after that.
“How did that just slide through?” Asked Linda McCormick, as she waited to pick up her grandchildren from Lehigh Senior High. “She needs to be removed from the school system period, around any students.”
The Lehigh Senior student involved in the inappropriate touching incident wrote in a statement Hill kissed her on her cheek for about 4 seconds.
According to the report, Hill said when she monitored the Lehigh Senior High hall in May, she caught a student and her girlfriend kissing during their lunch break. She said the students told her they were just exchanging a peck. So, she said she demonstrated the peck to show the girls, by kissing one of them on the cheek.
In her statement to the school, Hill said she should’ve sent the girls to the office with a referral, but chose not to, because one of the students had been disciplined previously.
In a written statement, the student also said Hill would tell her to break up with her girlfriend and date her daughter on several occasions.
Hill bonded out of jail Tuesday, so we tried to talk to her at home about both cases, but no one answered.
McCormick said the responsibility’s on authorities to make sure something like this doesn’t happen twice.
“When I was in school we didn’t have that problem. People were raised a little bit better and people were investigated a lot better,” she said.
In response to what happened at Lehigh Senior, the district released a statement that said:
“When allegations were brought forward, the district immediately engaged the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and DCF in the investigation and turned our findings over to them. The safety and security of our students is our highest priority.”
