Sarasota teacher charged with molesting two students. He used to work in Manatee County
A Sarasota teacher who has taught at four schools in Manatee and Sarasota counties has been charged with molesting two female students, according to the Sarasota Police Department.
Maxwell Guss, a Bradenton resident, is accused of touching a 13-year-old girl’s breasts at Brookside Middle School in Sarasota and nearly touching the breasts of a 14-year-old girl he was giving a massage to at Sarasota High School, according to probable cause affidavits.
Guss, 34, was arrested Monday afternoon and charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation.
In addition to coaching volleyball at Brookside, Guss has also taught at Harllee Middle School and Bayshore High School in Manatee County so police fear there may be more victims.
During their investigation, Sarasota police said they discovered that the administration at Sarasota High School had received a written complaint in 2017 about the allegations involving the 14-year-old student, who is now 16 years old, but they failed to report it.
As part of their investigation, police are working to determine who at the school knew of the allegations and failed to report them as mandatory child abuse reporters.
“Him being arrested is just the beginning,” police spokeswoman Genevieve Judge said. “We have questions and we have concerns based on what our investigation has revealed so far. That’s why it was of the utmost importance to get this out as soon as he was arrested.”
Guss has been on administrative leave from Brookside while the allegations were investigated. As of Monday, his teaching certificate was still active.
Manatee County School District officials are aware of the current investigation of Guss. According to school district spokesman Mike Barber, Guss was employed with the district from December 2014 to June 2016, during which there were no allegations of misconduct against him.
The Sarasota case was sent to the State Attorney’s Office for review earlier this month before charges were filed, which led to Guss’ arrest.
Sarasota police detectives first began investigating allegations on Sept. 6 when they were called to follow-up on an investigation already underway involving Brookside Middle School, the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Sarasota County Schools Police Department. Officials were investigating claims Guss had inappropriately touched two female students in his business class.
During a forensic interview at the Child Protection Center, the 13-year-old victim recounted what happened.
On Aug. 28, her bra strap had fallen off her shoulder and Guss pulled it up and told her to “tighten it next time,” according to the complaint. Two days later, the girl was walking into class when she said the front of her bra was possibly showing and Guss grabbed the buttoned-up cardigan she was wearing and moved it up over the front of the bra.
Guss held his hand over her breast with his thumb inside her bra while starring into her eyes for about five seconds as he did this, she told investigators. When she told him to get his hands off of her, he responded, “It’s OK,” the girl said, according to detectives.
Additionally, Guss was known for putting his hands over his business students as they were typing or using the computer mouse, police said. He would also regularly call certain girls to his desk in the back of the class room for an “interview,” asking them questions such if they had a boyfriend, if their parents were divorced, what sports they liked or what they did for fun.
After trying to convince the 13-year-old to join the volleyball team with the promise of the setter position, Guss invited the girl and her friends to go play beach volleyball. But the girl was uncomfortable, and reported what happened to her mother.
During their interview with Guss on Oct. 1, detectives learned of previous allegations made against him in 2017 when he was teaching algebra at Sarasota High School. He couldn’t remember the girl’s name, he told detectives, but remembered being brought into a meeting with Assistant Principal Becky Moyer.
When detectives met with Moyer on Oct. 29, she said she only vaguely remembered receiving a written complaint and meeting with girl’s mother, but she could not find the complaint file to provide police, according to a second probable cause affidavit.
Guss had been supervised by Principal David Jones, she told detectives, adding maybe he had the file but Jones said he no longer had the file, either. Officials searched the student’s file for the complaint, but it was not there.
The now 16-year-old girl met with detectives to recount what she had reported in 2017 and how the school had done nothing about it — not even moving her out of Guss’ class.
Guss was “creepy,” the girl told detectives. She shared similar stories about Guss’ “interviews” with girls at his desk, police said. He was also known for coming up behind his female students and massaging their shoulders.
Once when Guss massaged her shoulders, his hands came close to her breasts and she yelled at him, “What the (expletive) are you doing? Get your hands off of me,” according to the affidavit. The girl went home and told her mom, who got angry and went to the school.
Guss is being held at the Sarasota County jail on bonds totaling $15,000, according to the jail’s website.
Anyone with information on this case can call Sarasota police Detective Angela Cox at 941-263-6075 or can submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers by calling 941-366-8477 (TIPS) or online at sarasotacrimestoppers.com.
Herald staff writer Giuseppe Sabella contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 2:24 PM.
