St Patrick Interparish Assistant Principal Arrested For Handling Reported Sexual Abuses Internally

Updated Apr 1: Clemens was released a day after his arrest.

The Gainesville Police Department (GPD) arrested the assistant principal of k-8 school St Patrick Interparish, Ryan Michael Clemens, 41, today on charges of child neglect and tampering with evidence.

GPD announced in its press release that Clemens received a report of inappropriate behavior from the school’s physical education (P.E.) teacher, Christopher Chell, who was recently arrested on 10 counts of molesting a victim between the age of 12 and 16. 

Instead of reporting the sexual abuse to the authorities, Clemens held a meeting with himself, the victim, and their abuser, Chell. Clemens sided with Chell and attempted to silence the victim by disregarding her report. Clemons considered the investigation closed. Days later, he reported false information to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to minimize the allegations. 

Days after Clemens made the false report, a teacher and several students separately reported similar allegations of Chell’s behavior. Clemens did not submit any additional reports to DCF or GPD and failed to protect the students of St. Patrick Interparish. 

Detectives suspect there may be unidentified victims and asked anyone with information to contact Sgt. Pandak at (352) 393-7734.