Two local school employees arrested

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (WALA) - A teacher and a computer technician from the Jackson County School System have been arrested.

Until Thursday, 39-year-old Robert Griffin was teaching Health and Physical Education to students at St. Martin High School in Ocean Springs. But now Griffin is in jail.

Jackson County Sheriff's Deputies believe he molested a female student under the age of 16.

Superintendent, Dr. Barry Amacker says Griffin has been with the school system for eight years, and until now, there have not been any complaints on him.

"He's done a good job for us, we've had good reports with him," said Dr. Amacker.

Not only was Griffin a teacher, but he was also a coach. The superintendent says he is surprised and also disappointed about the allegations since Griffin has been working so closely with children for such a long time.

"Just the nature of being involved in extracurricular activities, you do become more involved in a different setting than the classroom which opens itself to influencing children," he said.

But Griffin wasn't the only Jackson County School employee arrested.

Mark Bowie, 41, a school district computer technician, was charged with having child pornography on his computer.

Dr. Amacker says Bowie started working for the school system six months ago.

"His role is not involved with students at all. It would be very incidental dealing with the technical side of fixing computers and wiring and that kind of thing, so it would be incidental at best," said Dr. Amacker.

The superintendent says both employees have been placed on administrative leave while the school system conducts its own investigation. The superintendent says the proper action will be taken once the investigation is completed.

"We're held to a much higher standard. We're given people's children and they trust us, we have a high expectations from parents and we're going to do everything we can to maintain that trust and protect our children from this kind of situation," said the superintendent.

Superintendent Amacker says Jackson County School System employees go through a rigid fingerprinting and background check before they are hired. Both of these men went through those checks.