Guyton: School system may be at fault

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The parent who filed a formal complaint with the Mobile County School System about Charles Lewis allegedly exposing himself to her child talks exclusively to FOX10 News.

Charles Lewis was arrested on January 4 for DUI, he was also arrested January 12 for allegedly sexually abusing a nine-year-old boy.

Lewis gave police two different home addresses during his arrests. The address he gave police during his January 4, DUI arrest was in Mobile. FOX10 went to that home and found a woman was living there, who said she had been in that apartment since November.

Lewis gave police an address in Summerdale when he was arrested for alleged sex abuse. When FOX10 went to this address on Friday he was not at home either.

We weren't able to find him, but the mother who filed a formal complaint in September came to us. According to the mother, who still wished to remain anonymous, Lewis exposed himself to her son inside his classroom. The mother said she went to the school the day it happened and talked with the principal, Mary Wood. She said when nothing was done, she hired an attorney.

"Weeks went by, this was in October, he wrote the letter ( attorney). I had been trying to get something done about this, so in October he wrote the letter and it wasn't until December right before Christmas break that he was removed from the class," the mother said.

This mother said even after she met with Wood in person and contacted the central office with a formal letter, nothing was done for nearly two months.

Pat Guyton is the Director of the Child Advocacy Center, he said the school system is at fault for not reporting the incident.

"No one at school has to prove anything, believe it or not, believe it. What they have to do is report it to either law enforcement of DHR. They are mandatory reporters the law has no gray area about that," Guyton said.

The school system did eventually remove the child from the class, but Guyton said that action took much too long to happen.

"When the knowledge first came to school officials, that's when the report should have been made to D.H.R. or law enforcement," he added.

According to the mother of the child, the police or the Department of Human Resources were never notified about the incident. She said her child has not been contacted by representatives from either of those agencies for questioning.

The School system was asked if they ever reported the incident.

"We are gathering facts and investigating," Spokesperson Nancy Pierce said.